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H.G.WELLS , ' <-- 

GA'RRETTPSERVISS , ,,-■.:, -■ ',S^ 
MURRAY LEINST-ER - " " - 




Contents for January 

The Red Dust 

(A Sequel to "The Mad Planet") 
By Murray Leintttr H78 

The Man Who Could Vanish 

By A. Hyatt Ferrill 900 

The First Men in the Moon 
(A Serial in 3 parts) Part II. 

By H. G. Wells —914 

The Man With the Strange Head 

By Dr. Miles J. Breuer -940 

The Second Delude 

(Serial in 4 parts) Part III. 

By Garrett P. Servhs 944 

Our Cover 
Ihffl month illustrates tint first 



In Our Next Issue: 

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, 1>y Edgar 
Rice Burroughs (A Serial in Three Parts— Part 
One). The editors do not remember ever having 
read a more exciting and all-absorbing storv thai 
the present one, by this master of fiction, the ere 
ator of the Tarzau tales, If you want to be thrilled 
through and through, do not miss this story. 



NEW STOMACHS FOR OLD, by W. Alexander, 
For some time a new technique has been built up 
by surgeons and biological experimenters; that is, 
successfully transplanting animal organs from one 
animal into another. But substituting one man's 
stomach for another is even today a large order, 
though not at all impossible. What surprises might 
be in store when it will fmallv be done, is related 
vividly by our new author. 



THE ELEVENTH HOUR, by Edwin Balmer and 
William B. MacHarg. Here is another one of the 
famous scientific detective stories by the well- 
known authors. There is good science and plenty 
this short tale, and you will not 
the full solution until the end. 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, bv H. 
Wells. After you have read this month's instalme 
you will natiiivilly lit: keyed up for the finish, whi 
will be given to you in large and forceful doses 
the final chapters next month. 



THE SECOND DELUGE, by Garrett P. Serviss 
In the closing chapters we find the expose of ; 
great mystery. Cosmo Versal knows that the en 
tire world must be submerged, for did he not set 
the very pinnacle of the Himalayas disappear under 
water? But nature has strange ways and the urn 
pected, as usual, promptly turns up. One of the 
greatest surprise endings that we have even se 



D INTBaNACIOSAL. 



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TEE 

MAGAZINE 

OF 

SCIENTIFICTION 

HUGO GERNSBACK, Editor 

DR. T. O'CONOR SLOANE, Ph,D. ; Associate Editor 

WILBUR C. WHITEHEAD, Literary Editor 

C. A. BRANDT, Literary Editor 



Editorial and General 


Offices: S3 Park Place, New York, N. Y. 


Extravagant Fiction Today 





INCREDIBLE FACTS 



By HUGO GERNSBACK 



WE arc living in stirring times. To the individual 
with imapiiiatioii it is easy to believe that we arc 
really not living through the wonders we see, but 
rather, that we are living in a story book, and 
that the achievements about us are nothing but imaginations. 
Who, for instance, but an imaginative scienti fiction writer, 
would think of making actual use of starlight? Absurd! 
Yet two Swiss scientists, Dr. Kolster, and Dr. Deesalis, who 
have been living in a tent for the last few months, on the 
summit of Monch Mountain, at an altitude of 13,465 feet, 
have found that a certain group of stars sends out extra- 
ordinary rays of light, whose radio-active force is far 
stronger than that of X-rays. The scientists hope to capture 
and employ these rays for scientific and medical purposes. 

Then, John Vandcrcock, writing in the New York Hercdd- 
Tribtme, reports on his recent scientific investigations in 
Dutch Guiana, that he found a certain tribe of Indians that 
use the so-called "snake cut," well-known and accepted as 
the common truth by all Dutch scientists. Just listen to 
tin's fantastic and incredible piece of near-fiction, which is 
fact nevertheless. The witch-doctors take the head and tail 
of a rattlesnake, the most deadly one imaginable. They then 
cook this, together with some herbs, and, under a full moon, 
make it into a dark powder. Now comes the astonishing 
tiling. They take a man and make an incision in his veins, 
and into this incision pour the powder. From that time on 
the man so treated has the power of paralyzing a snake. 
When he encounters a snake, no matter how deadly it may 
be, it becomes completely powerless at his approach. 

Scientists, in analyzing the medicine, have come within 
80 per cent of finding the ingredients, but the rest is mystery. 
They believe that the powder causes a certain exhalation 
in the perspiration of the person so treated, which has the 
power of paralyzing the snake. But this is simply a theory. 
Then science comes along and finds the densest star we 
know of — a small satellite of the star Sirius. It is a star 
of about the same size as our earth, but weighs almost as 
much as our sun. That, of course, means nothing to the 
iin;ii;iiKilion, but Iranshlcd, it means that if we should col- 
lect from this star, a little of its material the size of a base- 
ball, the little ball would actually weigh over 14 tons, or ap- 
proximately one ton per cubic inch. That's nothing however. 
Scientists now have a substance called "Neutronium," 
which we know exists in nature. This material weighs 60 
million Ions per cubic inch. It would take some 600 Wool- 
worth Buildings, if placed in a scale, to balance one cubic 
inch of neutronium. Neutronium, is four trillion times as 
dense as water. It is composed of an electron and a proton, 
when the two coalesce with each other. It is the most in- 



credible thing in the whole world. It is not affected chemi- 
cally. It can not be seen or felt, and there are no means 
of getting at it. This is, o£ course, on account of its ex- 
tremely small size, so minute that' if it falls, it will pass 
through every material on its way. It readily goes through 
glass walls, metal buildings, the earth itself, and continues 
falling right through the earth, passing through the center 
of it and going towards the other side, only to fall back. 
It keeps up this pendulum-like motion, its speed decreasing 
each time, until, finally, due to friction, it locates at the 
center of the earth, where it' comes to a stop. , 

Then there is the old mystery of Kaspar Hauser, who 
died in Germany in 1833 under circumstances as mysterious 
as his real identity. His case attracted such remarkable 
interest that in Germany alone more than 8,000 books have 
been written on the subject 

The story, in brief, is that one evening, in 1838, a Nurem- 
berg shoemaker noticed in the street a youth of about sixteen 
years, whose dazed appearance and peculiarity of gait re- 
sembled that of an infant just learning to walk. The shoe- 
maker took him to the local barracks. Offered food, the 
boy refused meat and beer, with disgust, but eagerly ate 
and drank large quantities of bread and water. Kaspar 
Hauser was able to write his name, but he babbled like a 
baby. He could see very well in the dark, while bright 
light caused him acute discomfort, giving rise to inflam- 
mation of his eyelids. He was a metalophobc, and was so 
intensely affected by metals that he had to have wooden 
spoons and forks with which to eat. The boy's sense of 
smell was as acute as his sight. He fainted at the scent of 
a rose, while the smell of meat made him violently sick. 
An attempt to give him anything to eat beyond bread and 
water made him ill. Even a few drops of wine or coffee 
mixed in a glass of water caused violent nausea. 

After a while he became educated enough to relate his story, 
and it seems that he always lived in a black, low-ceilinged room, 
in which he was unable to stand upright. A black or dark 
man brought him bread and water every day, and he had a 
little wooden horse to play with. The dark man taught 
him to write, until he finally took him into a street, where 
the boy was abandoned. He lost his sensitivity to light and 
metals after a while, but the mystery surrounding him 
would not end, for two attacks were made on his life. The 
first attempt miscarried, but when he was stahbed in a public 
garden of the town, for the second time, lie died three days 
later. ■ 

I have given these examples of incredible facts simply to 
show that we should not be too ready to denounce the ideas 
that seem most impossible, for they have a trick of material- 
izing even while we are talking about them. 



Mr. Hugo Gerasback speaks every Monday at 9 P. M. from WENY on various scientific and radio subjects. 

'877j 



* RED DUST 

s <@j "Murray /einsler •* 

% Sequel to "The Ma d Plaaet.* 1 




A bis spoor and plunged down on the bach of the moving thing, thrusting hii 



878 



ct'o boad and thorax. 



THE RED DUST 



879 



CHAPTER I 




Prey 

j|HE sky grew gray and then almost 
white. The over-hanging banks of 
clouds seemed to withdraw a little from 
the steaming earth. Haze that hung 
among the mushroom forests 
and above the fungus hills grew more tenuous, and 
the slow and misty rain that dripped the whole 
night long ceased reluctantly. 

As far as the eye could see a mad world stretched 
out, a world of insensate cruelties and strange, 
fierce maternal solicitudes. The insects of the 
night — the great moths whose wings spread far 
and wide in the dimness, and the huge fireflies, four 
feet in length, whose beacons made the earth glow 
in their pale, weird light — the insects of the night 
had sought their hiding-places. 

Now the creatures of the day ventured forth. 
A great ant-hill towered a hundred feet in the air. 
Upon its gravel and boulder-strewn side a commo- 
tion became visible, 

The earth crumbled, and fell into an invisible 
opening, then a dark chasm appeared, and two slen- 
der, threadlike antenna? peered out. 

A warrior ant emerged, and stood for an instant 
in the daylight, looking all about for signs of danger 
to the ant-city. He was all of ten inches long, this 
ant, and his mandibles were fierce and strong. A 
second and third warrior came from the inside of 



no less hound by the unwritten but imperative laws 
of the city than they. From the time of waking to 
the time of rest, she was ordained to be the queen- 
mother in the strictest and most literal sense of the 
word, for at intervals to he measured only in terras 
of minutes she brought forth a single egg, perhaps 
three inches in length, which was instantly seized 
by one of her eager attendants and carried in haste 
to the municipal nursery. 

There it was placed in a tiny cell a foot or more 
in length until a sac-shaped grub appeared, all soft, 
white body save for a tiny mouth. Then the nurses 
took it in charge and fed it with curious, tender 
gestures until it had waxed large and fat and slept 
the sleep of metamorphosis. When it emerged from 
its rudimentary cocoon it took the places of its 
nurses until its so'ft skin had hardened into the 
horny armor of the workers and soldiers, and then 
it joined the throng of workers that poured out from 
the city at dawn to forage for food, to bring back 
its finds and to share with the warriors and the 
nurses, the drone males and the young queens, and 
all the other members of its communities, their 
duties in the city itself. That was the life of the 
social insect, absolute devotion to the cause of its 
city, utter abnegation of self-interest for the sake 
of its fellows — and death at their hands when their 
usefulness was past. They neither knew nor ex- 
pected more or less. 

It is a strange instinct that prompts these crea- 
tures to devote their lives to their city, taking i 



the ant-hill, and ran with tiny clickings about the smallest thought for their individual good, without 

hillock, waving their antenna? restlessly, searching, even the call of maternity or sex to guide them, 

ever searching for a menace to their city. Only the queen knows motherhood. The others 

They returned to the gateway from which they know nothing but toil, for purposes they do not un- 

had made their appearance, evidently bearing re- derstand, and to an end of which they cannot dream, 

assuring messages, because shortly after they had At intervals all over the world of Burl's time 

reentered the gateway of the ant -city, a flood of these ant-cities rose above the surrounding ground, 

black, ill-smelling workers poured out of the open- some small and barely begun, and others ancient 



ing and dispersed upon 
their business, The click- 
ings of their limbs and an 
occasional whining strid- 
ulation made an inces- 
sant sound as they scat- 
tered over the earth, 
foraging among the mush- 
rooms and giant 
among the rubbish-heaps 
of the gigantic beehives 
and wasp colonies, and 
among the remains of the 
tragedies of the night for food for their city. 

The city of the ants had begun its daily toil, toil 
in which every one shared without supervision or 
coercion. Deep in the recesses of the pyramid gal- 
leries were hollowed out and winding passages that 
led down a fathomless distance into the earth 
below. 

Somewhere in the maze of tunnels there was a 
royal apartment, in which the queen-ant reposed, 
waited upon by assiduous courtiers, fed by royal 
stewards, and combed and rubbed by the hands of 
her subjects and children. 



~STOU who have read "The Mad Planet' by Murray 
■* Leinster, will welcome the sequel to that story. The 
world, in a far distant future, is peopled with huge insects 
and titanic fungus growths. Life has been greatly altered, 
and liny Man is now in the process of becoming acclimated 
to the change. We again meet our hero Burl, but this time 
a jar greater danger menaces the human race. The huge 
insects are still in evidence, but the terror they inspire is as 
nothing compared to the deadly Red Dust. You will follow 
this remarkable story with breathless interest. 



colonies which were truly 
the continuation of cities 
first built when the ants 
were insects to be crushed 
beneath the feet of men. 
These ancient strongholds 
towered two, three, and 
even four hundred feet 
above the plains, and 
their inhabitants would 
have had to be numbered 
HH^^™H""15HPi in millions if not bil- 
lions. 
Not all the earth was subject to the ants, however. 
Bees and wasps and more deadly creatures crawled 
over and flew above its surface. The bees were four 
feet and more in length. And slender-waisted wasps 
darted here and there, preying upon the colossal 
crickets that sang deep bass music to their mates — 
and the length of the crickets was the length of a 
man, and more. 

Spiders with bloated bellies waited, motionless, in 
their snares, whose threads were the size of small 
cables, waiting for some luckless giant insect to be 
entangled in the gummy traps. And butterflies flut- 



But even the huge monarch of the city had her tered over the festering plains of this new world 
constant and pressing duty of maternity. A dozen tremendous creatures whose wings could only be 
times the size of her largest loyal servant, she was measured in terms of yards. 



AMAZING STORIES 



An outcropping of rock jutted up abruptly from a 
fungus-covered plain. Shelf-fungi and strangely 
colored molds stained the stone until the shining 
quartz was hidden almost completely from view, but 
the whole glistened like tinted crystal from the dank 



sps of vapor curled 
isture was taken up 



wetness of the night. Little 
away from the slopes as the 
by the already moisture-laden ai: 

Seen from a distance, the outcropping of rock 
looked innocent and still, but a nearer view showed 
many things. 

Here a hunting wasp had come upon a gray worm, 
and was methodically inserting its sting into each 
of the twelve segments of the faintly writhing crea- 
ture. Presently the worm would be completely 
paralyzed, and would be carried to the burrow of 
the wasp, where an egg would be laid upon it, from 
which a tiny maggot would presently hatch. Then 
weeks of agony for the great gray worm, conscious, 
but unable to move, while the maggot fed upon its 
living flesh — 

There the tiny spider, youngest of hatchlings, 
barely four inches across, stealthily stalked some 
other still tinier mite, the little, many-legged larva 
of the oil-beetle, known as the bee-louse. The al- 
most infinitely small bee-louse was barely two 
inches long, and could easily hide in the thick fur 
of a great bumblebee. 

This one small creature would never fulfill its 
destiny, however. The hatchling spider sprang — 
it was a combat of midgets which was soon over. 
When the spider had grown and was feared as a 
huge, black-bellied tarantula, it would slay monster 
crickets with the same ease and the same implac- 
able ferocity. 

The outcropping of rock looked still and innocent. 
There was one point where it overhung, forming a 
shelf, beneath which the stone fell away in a sheer- 
drop. Many colored fungus growths covered the 
rock, making it a riot of tints and shades. But 
hanging from the rooflike projection of the stone 
there was a strange, drab-white object. It was in 
the shape of half a globe, perhaps six feet by six 
feet at its largest. A number of little semicircular 
doors were fixed about its sides, like inverted arches, 
each closed by a blank wall. One of them would 
open, but only one. 

The house was like the half of a pallid orange, 
fastened to the roof of rock. Thick cables stretched 
in every direction for yards upon yards, anchoring 
the habitation firmly, but the most striking of the 
things about the house — still and quiet and innocent, 
like all the rest of the rock outcropping — were the 
ghastly trophies fastened to the outer walls and 
hanging from long silken chains below. 

Here was the hind leg of one of the smaller 
beetles. There was the wing-case of a flying crea- 
ture. Here a snail-shell, two feet in diameter, hang- 
ing at the end of an inch-thick cable. There a 
boulder that must have weighed thirty or forty 
pounds, dangling in similar fashion. 

But fastened here and there, haphazard and ir- 
regularly, were other more repulsive remnants. 
The shrunken head-armor of a beetle, the fierce jaws 
pi a cricket — the pitiful shreds of a hundred crea- 



tures that had formed forgotten meals for the 
bloated insect within the home. 

Comparatively small as was the nest of the clotho 
spider, it was decorated as no ogre's castle had ever 
been adorned — legs sucked dry of their contents, 
corselets of horny armor forever to be unused by 
any creature, a wing of this insect, the head of that. 
And dangling by the longest coTd of all, with a 
silken cable wrapped carefully about it to keep the 
parts together, was the shrunken, shriveled, dried- 
up body of a long-dead man! 

Outside, the nest was a place of gruesome relics. 
Within, it was a place of luxury and ease. A 
cushion of softest down filled all the bulging bottom 
of the hemisphere. A canopy of similarly luxurious 
texture interposed itself between the rocky roof and 
the dark, hideous body of the resting spider. 

The eyes of the hairy creature glittered like 
diamonds, even in the darkness, but the loathsome, 
attenuated legs were tucked under the round-bellied 
body, and the spider was at rest. It had fed. 

It waited, motionless, without desires or aver- 
sions, without emotions or perplexities, in comfort- 
able, placid, machinelike contentment until time 
should bring the call to feed again. 

A fresh carcass had been added to the decorations 
of the nest only the. night before. For many days 
the spider would repose in motionless splendor with- 
in the silken castle. When hunger came again, a 
nocturnal foray, a creature would be pounced upon 
and slain, brought bodily to the nest, and feasted 
upon, its body festooned upon the exterior, and an- 
other half -sleeping, half-waking period of dreamful 
idleness within the sybaritic charnel-house would 
ensue. 

Slowly and timidly, half a dozen pink-skinned 
creatures made their way through the mushroom 
forest' that led to the out-cropping of rock under 
which the clotho spider's nest was slung. They 
were men, degraded remnants of the once dominant 

Burl was their leader, and was distinguished 
solely by two three-foot stumps of the feathery, 
golden antennte of a night-flying moth he had bound 
to his forehead. In his hand was a horny, chitinous 
spear, taken from the body of an unknown flying 
creature killed by the flames of the burning purple 
hills. 

Since Burl's return from his solitary — and in- 
voluntary — journey, he had been greatly revered by 
his tribe. Hitherto it had been but a leaderless, 
formless group of people, creeping to the same hid- 
ing-place at nightfall to share in the food of the 
fortunate, and shudder at the fate of those who 
might not appear. 

Now Burl had walked boldly to them, bearing, 
upon his back the gray bulk of a labyrinth spider 
he had slain with his own hands, and clad in wonder- 
ful garments of a gorgeousness they envied and 
admired. They hung upon his words as he 
struggled to tell them of his adventures, and slowly 
and dimly they began to look to him for leadership. 
He was wonderful. For days they had listened 
breathlessly to the tale of his adventures, but when 
he demanded that they follow him in another and 
more perilous affair, they were appalled. 



THE RED DUST 



A peculiar strength of will had come to BurL He 
had seen and done things that no man in the memory 
of his tribe had seen or done. He had stood by 
when the purple hills burned and formed a funeral 
pyre for the horde of army ants, and for uncounted 
thousands of flying creatures. He had caught a 
leaping tarantula upon the point of hia spear, and 
had escaped from the web of a banded web-spider 
by oiling his body so that the sticky threads of the 
snare refused to hold him fast. He had attacked 
and killed a great gray labyrinth spider. 

But most potent of all, he had returned and had 
been welcomed by Saya — Saya of the swift feet 
and slender limbs, whose smile roused strange 
emotions in BuijI's breast. 

It was the adoring gaze of Saya that had roused 
Burl to this last pitch of rashness. Months before 
the clotho spider in the hemispherical silk castle 
of the gruesome decorations had killed and eaten 
one of the men of the tribe. Burl and the spider's 
victim had been together when the spider appeared, 
and the first faint gray light of morning barely 
silhouetted the shaggy, horrible creature as it 
leaped from amhush behind a toadstool toward the 
fear- stricken pair. 

Its attenuated legs were outstretched, its^man- 
dibles gaped wide, and its jaws clashed horribly as 
it formed a black blotch in mid air against the 
lightening sky. 

Burl had fled, screaming, when the other man 
was seized. Now, however, he was leading half a 
dozen trembling men toward the inverted dome in 
which the spider dozed. Two or three of them bore 
spears like Burl himself, but they bore them awk- 
wardly and timorously. Burl himself was possessed 
by- a strange, fictitious courage. It was the utter 
recklessness of youth, coupled with the eternal 
masculine desire to display prowess before a desired 
female. 

The wavering advance came to a halt. Most of 
the naked men stopped from fear, but Burl stopped 
to invoke his newly discovered inner self, that had 
furnished him with such marvelous plans. Quite 
accidentally he had found that if he persistently 
asked himself a question, some sort of answer came 
from within. 

Now he gazed up from a safe distance and asked 
himself how he and the others were to slay the 
clotho spider. The nest was some forty feet from 
the ground, on the undersurface of a shelf of rock. 
There was sheer open space heneath it, but it wa3 
firmly held to its support by long, silken cables that 
curled to the upper side of the rock-shelf, clinging 
to the stone. 

Burl gazed, and presently an idea came to him. 
He beckoned to the others to follow him, and they 
did so, their knees knocking together from their 
fright. At the slightest alarm they would flee, 
screaming in fear, but Burl did not plan that there 
should be any alarm. 

He led them to the rear of the singular rock 
formation, up the gently sloping side, and toward 
the precipitous edge. He drew near the point where 
the rock fell away. A long, tentacle-like silk cable 
curled up over the edge of a little promontory of 
stone that jutted out into nothingness. 



Burl began to feel oddly cold, and something of 
the panic of the other men communicated itself to 
him. This was one of the anchoring cables that 
held the spider's castle secure. He looked and found 
others, six or seven in all, which performed the task 
of keeping the shaggy, horrid ogre's home from 
falling to the ground below. 

His idea did not desert him, however, and he 
drew back, to whisper orders to his followers. They 
obeyed him solely because they were afraid, and he 
spoke in an authoritative tone, but they did obey, 
and brought a dozen heavy boulders of perhaps 
forty pounds weight each. 

Burl grasped one of the silken cables at its end 
and tore it loose from the rock for a space of per- 
haps two yards. His flesh crawled as he did so, 
but something within him drove him on. Then, 
■while beads of perspiration stood out on his fore- 
head — induced hy nothing less than cold, physical 
fear — he tied the boulder to the cable. The first 
one done, he felt emboldened, and made a second 
fast, and a third. 

One of his men stood near the edge of thVrock, 
listening in agonized apprehension. Burl had soon 
tied a heavy stone to each of the cables he saw, and 
as a matter of fact, there was but one of them he 
failed to notice. That one had been covered by the 
flaking mold that took the place of grass upon the 
rocky eminence. 

There were left upon the promontory, several of 
the boulders for which there was no use, but Eur? 
did not attempt to double the weights on the cables. 
He took his followers aside and explained his plan 
in whispers. Quaking, they agreed, and, trembling, 
they prepared to carry it out. 

One of them stationed himself beside each of the 
boulders, Burl at the largest. He gave a signal, and 
half a dozen ripping, tearing sounds broke the sullen 
silence of the day. The boulders clashed and clat- 
tered down the rocky side of the precipice, tearing 
—perhaps "peeling" — the cables from their ad- 
hesion to the stone. They shot into open space and 
jerked violently at the half-globular nest, which was 
wrenched from its place by the combined impetus 
of the six heavy weights. 

Burl had flung himself upon his face to watch 
what he was sure would be the death of the spider 
as it fell forty feet and more, imprisoned in it3 
heavily weighted home. His eyes sparkled with 
triumph as he saw the ghastly, trophy-laden house 
swing out from the cliff. Then he gasped in terror. 
One of the cables had not been discovered. That 
single cable held the spider's castle from a fall, 
though the nest had been torn from its anchorage, 
and now dangled heavily on its side in mid air. 
A convulsive struggle seemed to be going on within. 
Then one of the archlike doors opened, and the 
spider emerged, evidently in terror, and confused 
by the light of day, but still venomous and still 
deadly. It found but a single of its anchoring cables 
intact, that leading to the cliff top hard by Burl's 
head. i 

The spider sprang for this single cable, and its 
legs grasped the slender thread eagerly while it 
ibegan to climb rapidly up toward the cliff top. 
As with all the creatureB of Burl's time, its first 



AMAZING STORIES 



thought was of battle, not flight, and it came up the 
thin cord with its poison fangs unsheathed and its 
mandibles clashing in rage. The shaggy hair upon 
its body seemed to bristle with insane ferocity, and 
the horrible, thin legs moved with desperate haste 
as it hastened to meet and wreak vengeance upon 
the cause of its sudden alarm. 

Burl's followers fled, uttering shrieks of fear, 
and Burl started to his feet, in the grip of a terrible 
panic. Then his hand struck one of the heavy 
boulders. Exerting every ounce of his strength, 
he pushed it over the cliff just where the cable ap- 
peared above the edge. For the fraction of a second 
there was silence, and then the indescribable sound 
of an impact against a soft body. 

There was a gasping cry, and a moment later the 
curiously muffled clatter of the boulder striking the 
earth below. Somehow, the sound suggested that 
the boulder had struck first upon some soft object. 

A faint ery came from the bottom of the hill. The 
last of Burl's men was leaping to a hiding-place 
among the mushrooms of the forest, and had seen 
the sheen of shining armor just before him. He 
cried out and waited for death, but only a delicately 
formed wasp rose heavily into the air, bearing be- 
neath it the more and more feebly struggling body 
of a giant cricket. 

Burl had stood paralyzed, deprived of the power 
of movement, after casting the boulder over the 
cliff. That one action had taken the last ounce 
of his initiative, and if the spider had hauled itself 
over the rocky edge and darted toward him, slaver- 
ing its thick spittle and uttering sounds of mad 
fury, Burl would not even have screamed as it seized 
him. He was like a dead thing. But the oddly 
muffled sound of the boulder striking the ground 
below brought back hope of life and power of 
movement. 

He peered over the cliff. The nest still dangled 
at the end of the single cable, still freighted with 
its gruesome trophies, but on the ground below a 
crushed and horribly writhing form was moving 
in convulsions of rage and agony. 

Long, hairy legs worked desperately from a body 
that was no more than a mass of pulped flesh. A 
ferocious jaw tried to clamp upon something — and 
there was no other jaw to meet it. An evil-smelling, 
sticky liquid exuded from the mangled writhing, 
thing upon the earth, moving in terrible contortions 
of torment. 

Presently an ant drew near and extended inquisi- 
tive antenna? at the helpless monster wounded to 
death. A shrill stridulation sounded out, and three 
or four other foot-long ants hastened up to wait 
patiently just outside the spider's reach until its 
struggles should have lessened enough to make pos- 
sible the salvage of flesh from the perhaps still- 
living creature for the ant city a mile away. 

And Burl, up on the cliff-top, danced and gesti- 
culated in triumph. He had killed the clotho spider, 
which had slain one of the tribesmen four months 
before. Glory was his. All the tribesmen had seen 
the spider living. Now he would show them the 
spider dead. He stopped his dance of triumph and 
walked down the hill in haughty grandeur. He 
would reproach his timid followers for fleeing from 
the spider, leaving him to kill it alone. 



Quite naively Burl assumed that it was his place 
to give orders and that of the others to obey. True, 
no one had attempted to give orders before, or to 
enforce their execution, but Burl had reached the 
eminently wholesome conclusion that he was a won- 
derful person whose wishes should be respected. 

Burl, filled with fresh notions of his own import- 
ance, strutted on toward the hiding-place of the 
tribe, growing more and more angry with the other 
men for having deserted him. He would reproach 
them, would probably beat them. They would be 
afraid to protest, and in the future would undoubt- 
edly be afraid to run away. 

Burl was quite convinced that running away 
was something he could not tolerate in his followers. 
Obscurely — and conveniently in the extreme back of 
his mind — he reasoned that not only did a larger 
number of men present at a scene of peril increase 
the chances of coping with the danger, but they also 
increased the chances that the victim selected by 
the dangerous creature would be another than him- 
self. 

Burl's reasoning was unsophisticated, but sound; 
perhaps unconscious, but none the less effective. 
He grew quite furious with the deserters. They 
had run away! They had fled from a mere spider. 

A shrill whine filled the air, and a ten-inch ant 
dashed at Burl with its mandibles extended threaten- 
ingly. Burl's path had promised to interrupt the 
salvaging work of the insect, engaged in scraping 
shreds of flesh from the corselet of one of the 
smaller beetles slain the previous night. The ant 
dashed at Burl like an infuriated fox-terrier, and 
Burl scurried away in undignified retreat. The ant 
might not be dangerous, but bites from its formic 
acid-poisoned mandibles were no trifles. 

Burl came to the tangled thicket of mushrooms 
in which his tribe-folk hid. The entrance was 
tortuous and difficult to penetrate, and could be 
blocked on occasion with stones and toadstool pulp. 
Burl made his way toward the central clearing, and 
heard as he went the sound of weeping, and the 
excited chatter of the tribes people. 

Those who had fled from the rocky cliff had re- 
turned with the news that Burl was dead, and Saya 
lay weeping beneath an over-shadowing toadstool. 
She was not yet the mate of Burl, but the time 
would come when all the tribe would recognize a 
status dimly different from the usual tribal relation- 
ship. 

Buri stepped into the clearing, and straightway 
cuffed the first man he came upon, then the next 
and the riext. There was a cry of astonishment, 
and the next second instinctive, fearful glances at 
that entrance to the hiding-place. 

Had Burl fled from the spider, and was it follow- 
ing? Burl spoke loftily, saying that the spider was 
dead, that its legs, each one the length of a man, 
were still, and its fierce jaws and deadly poison- 
fangs harmless forevermore. 

Ten minutes later he was leading an incredulous, 
awed little group of pink-skinned people to the spot 
below the cliff where the spider actually lay dead, 
with the 'ants busily at work upon its remains. 

And when he went back to the hiding-place he 
donned again his great cloak that was made from 
the wing of a magnificent moth, slain by the flames 



THE RED DUST 



883 



of the purple hills, and sat down in splendor upon a 
crumbling toadstool, to feaat upon the glances of 
admiration and awe that were sent toward him. 
Only Saya held back shyly, until he motioned for 
her to draw near, when she seated herself at his 
feet and gazed up at him with unutterable adoration 
in her eyes. 

But while Burl basked in the radiance of his 
tribe's admiration, danger was drawing near them 
all. For many months there had been strange red 
mushrooms growing slowly here and there all over 
the earth, they knew. The tribe-folk had speculated 
about them, but forebore tasting them because 
they were strange, and strange things were 
usually dangerous and often fatal. 

Now those red growths had ripened and grown 
ready to emit their spores. Their rounded tops 
had grown fat, and the tough skin grew taut as if 
a strange pressure were being applied from within. 
And to-day, while Burl luxuriated in his position of 
feared and admired great man of his tribe, at a spot 
a long distance away, upon a hill-top, one of the 
red mushrooms burst. The spores inside the taut, 
tough skin shot all about as if scattered by an ex- 
plosion, and made a little cloud of reddish, im- 
palpable dust, which hung in the air and moved 
slowly with the sluggish breeze. 

A bee droned into the thin red cloud of dust, 
lazily and heavily flying back toward the hive. But 
barely had she entered the tinted atmosphere when 
her movements became awkward and convulsive, 
effortful and excited. She trembled and twisted in 
mid air in a peculiar fashion, then dropped to the 
earth, while her ahdomen moved violently. 

Bees, like almost all insects, breathe through 
spiracles on the undersurfaces of their abdomens. 
This bee had breathed in some of the red mush- 
room's spores. She thrashed about desperately 
upon the toadstools on which she had fallen, strug- 
gling for breath, for life. 

After a long time she was still. The cloud of 
red mushroom spores had strangled or poisoned her. 
And everywhere the red fringe grew, such explo- 
sions were taking place, one by one, and wherever 
the red clouds hung in the air creatures were breath- 
ing them in and dying in convulsions of strangula- 
tion. 

CHAPTER II 

The Journey 

DARKNESS. The soft, blanketing night of 
the age of fungoids had fallen over all the 
earth, and there was blackness everywhere 
that was not good to have. Here and there, how- 
ever, dim, bluish lights glowed near the ground. 
There an intermittent glow showed that a fire-fly 
had wandered far from the rivers and swamps 
above which most of his kind now congregated. Now 
a faintly luminous ball of fire drifted above the 
steaming, moisture-sodden earth. It was a will-o'- 
the-wisp, grown to a yard in diameter. 

From the low-hanging banks of clouds that hung 
perpetually overhead, large, warm raindrops fell 
ceaselessly. A drop, a pause, and then another drop, 



added to the already dank moisture of the ground 
below. 

The world of fungus growths flourished on just 
such dampness and humidity. It seemed as if the 
toadstools and mushrooms could be heard, swelling 
and growing large in the darkness. Rustlings and 
stealthy movements sounded furtively through the 
night, and from above the heavy throb of mighty 
wing-beats was continuous. 

The tribe was hidden in the midst of a tangled 
copse of toadstools too thickly interwoven for the 
larger insects to penetrate. Only the little midgets 
hid in its recesses during the night-time, and the 
smaller moths during the day. 

About and among the bases of the toadstools, 
however, where their spongy stalks rose from the 
humid earth, small beetles roamed, singing cheer- 
fully to themselves in deep bass notes. They were 
small and round, some six or eight inches long, and 
their bellies were pale gray. 

And as they went about they emitted sounds 
which would have been chirps had they been other 
than low as the lowest tone of a harp. They were 
truffle-beetles, in search of the dainty tidbits on 
which epicures once had feasted. 

Some strange sense seemed to tell them when one 
of half a dozen varieties of truffle was beneath 
them, and they paused in their wandering to dig a 
tunnel straight down. A foot, two feet, or two 
yards, all was the same to them. In time they would 
come upon the morsel they sought and would re- 
main at the bottom of their temporary home until 
it. was consumed. Then another period of wander- 
ing, singing their cheerful song, until another likely 
spot was reached and another tunnel begun. 

In a tiny, open space in the center of the toad- 
stool thicket the tribe-folk slept with the deep notes 
of the truffle-beetles in their ears. A new danger 
had come to them, but they had passed it on to Burl 
with a new and childlike confidence and considered 
the matter settled. They slept, while beneath a glow- 
ing mushroom at one side of the clearing Burl 
struggled with his new problem. He squatted upon 
the ground in the dim radiance of the shining toad- 
stool, his moth-wing cloak wrapped about him, his 
spear in his hand, and his twin golden plume3 of 
the moth's antennas bound to his forehead. But his 
face was downcast as a child's. 

The red mushrooms had begun to burst. Only 
that day, one of the women, seeking edible fungus 
for the tribal larder, had seen the fat, distended 
globule of the red mushroom. Its skin was stretched 
taut, and glistened in the light. 

The woman paid little or no attention to the red 
growth. Her ears were attuned to catch sounds 
that would warn her of danger while her eye3 
searched for tidbits that would make a meal for the 
tribe, and more particularly for her small son, left 
behind at the hiding-place. 

A ripping noise made her start up, alert on the 
instant. The red envelope of the mushroom had 
split across the top, and a thick cloud of brownish- 
red dust was spurting in every direction. It formed 
a pyramidal cloud some thirty feet in height, which 
enlarged and grew thinner with minor eddies within 
itself. 

A little yellow butterfly with wings barely a yard 



AMAZING STORIES 



from tip to tip, flapped lazily above the mushroom- 
covered plain. Its wings beat the air with strokes 
that seemed like playful tap3 upon a friendly 
element. The butterfly was literally intoxicated 
with the Bheer joy of living'. It had emerged from 
its cocoon barely two hours before, and was making 
its maiden flight above the strange and wonderful 
world. It fluttered carelessly into the red-brown 
cloud of mushroom spores. 

The woman was watching the slowly changing 
form of the spore-mist. She saw the butterfly enter 
the brownish dust, and then her eyes beeame greedy. 
There was something the matter with the butter- 
fly. Its wings no longer moved lazily and gently. 
They struck out in frenzied, hysterica! blows that 
were erratic and wild. The little yellow creature no 
longer floated lightly and easily, but dashed here 
and there, wildly and without purpose, seeming to 
be in its death-throes. 

It crashed helplessly against the ground and lay 
there, moving feebly. The woman hurried forward. 
The wings would be new fabric with which to adorn 
herself, and the fragile legs of the butterfly con- 
tained choice meat. She entered the dust-cloud. 

A stream of intolerable fire— though the woman 
had never seen or known of fire — burned her 
nostrils and seared her lungs. She gasped in pain, 
and the agony was redoubled. Her eyes smarted as 
if burning from their sockets, and tears blinded 
her. 

The woman instinctively turned about to flee, but 
before she had gone a dozen yards — blinded as she 
was — she stumbled and fell to the ground. She lay 
there, gasping, and uttering moan3 of pain, until 
one of the men of the tribe who had been engaged 
in foraging near by saw her and tried to find what 
had injured her. 

She could not speak, and he was about to leave 
her and tell the other tribe-folk about her when he 
heard the clicking of an ant's limbs, and rather than 
have the ant pick her to pieces bit by bit — and leave 
his curiosity ungratified — the man put her across 
his shoulders and bore her back to the hiding-place 
of the tribe. 

It was the tale the woman had told when she 
partly recovered that caused Burl to sit alone all 
that night beneath the shining toadstool in the little 
clearing, puzzling his just-awakened brain to know 
what to do. 

The year before there had been no red mush- 
rooms. They had appeared only recently, but Burl 
dimly remembered that one day, a long time before, 
there had been a strange breeze which blew for 
three day and nights, and that during the time of 
its blowing all the tribe had been sick and had wept 
continually. 

Burl had not yet reached the point of mental 
development when he would associate that breeze 
with a storm at a distance, or reason that the spores 
of the red mushrooms had been borne upon the 
wind to the present resting-places of the deadly 
fungus growths. Still leBS could he decide that the 
breeze had not been deadly only because it was 
lightly laden with the fatal dust. 

He knew simply that unknown red mushrooms 
had appeared, that they were everywhere about, and 
that they would burst, and that to breathe the red 



dust they gave out was grievous skkneis or death. 

The triba slept while the bravely attired figure of 
Burl squatted under the glowing disk of the lumin- 
ous mushroom, his face a picture of querulous per- 
plexity, and his heart full of sadness. 

He had consulted his strange inner self, and no 
plan had come to him. He knew the red mushrooms 
were all about. They would fill the air with their 
poison. He struggled with his problem while his 
people slumbered, and the woman who had breathed 
the mushroom- dust sobbed softly in her troubled 
sleep. 

Presently a figure stirred on the farther side of 
the clearing. Saya woke and raised her head. She 
saw Burl crouching by the shining toadstool, his 
gay attire draggled and unnoticed. She watched 
him for a little, and the desolation of his pose awoke 
her pity. 

She rose and went to his side, taking his hand 
between her two, while she spoke his name softly. 
When he turned and looked at her, confusion smote 
her, but the misery in his face brought confidence 
again. 

Burl's sorrow was inarticulate— he could not ex- 
plain this new responsibility for his people that 
had come to him — but he was comforted by her 
presence, and she sat down beside him. After a 
long time she slept, with her head resting against 
his side, but he continued to question himself, con- 
tinued to demand an escape for his people from the 
suffering and danger he saw ahead. With the day 
an answer came. 

When Burl had been carried down the river on 
his fungus raft, and had landed in the country of 
the army ants, he had seen great forests of edible 
mushrooms, and had said to himself that he would 
bring Saya to that place. He remembered, now, 
that the red mushrooms were there also, but the 
idea of a journey remained. 

The hunting-ground of his tribe had been free of 
the red fungoids until recently. If he traveled far 
enough he would come to a place where there were 
still no red toadstools. Then came the decision. 
He would lead his tribe to a far country. 

He spoke with stern authority when the tribes- 
men woke, talking in few words and in a loud voice, 
holding up his spear 33 he gave his orders. 

The timid, pink-skinned people obeyed him 
meekly. They had seen the body of the clotho spider 
he had slain, and he had thrown down before them 
the gray bulk of the labyrinth spider he had thrust 
through with his spear. Now he was to take them 
through unknown dangers to an unknown haven, 
but they feared to displease him. 

They made light loads of their mushrooms and 
such meat-stuffs as they had, and parceled out what 
little fabric they still possessed. Three men bore 
spears, in addition to Burl's long shaft, and he had 
persuaded the other three to carry clubs, showing 
them how the weapon should be wielded. 

The indefinitely brighter spot in the cloud-banks 
above that meant the shining sun had barely gone 
a quarter of the way across the sky when the 
trembling band of timid creatures made their way 
from their hiding-place and set out upon their 
journey. For their course, Burl depended entirely 
upon chance. He avoided the direction of the river, 



THE RED DUST 



however, and the path along: which he had returned 
to his people. He knew the red mushrooms grew 
there. Purely by accident he set his march toward 
the west, and walked cautiously on, his tribes-folk 
following him fearfully. 

Burl walked ahead, his spear held ready. He 
made a figure at once brave and pathetic, ventur- 
ing forth in a world of monstrous ferocity and in- 
credible malignance, armed only with a horny spear 
borrowed from a dead insect. His velvety cloak, 
made from a moth's wing, hung about his figure 
in graceful folds, however, and twin golden plumes 
nodded jauntily from his forehead. 

Behind him the nearly naked people followed re- 
luctantly. Here a woman with a baby in her arms, 
there children of nine or ten, unable to resist the 
instinct to play even in the presence of the manifold 
dangers of the march. They ate hungrily of the 
lumps of mushroom they had been ordered to carry. 
Then a long-legged boy, his eyes roving anxiously 
about in search of danger followed. 

Thirty thousand years of flight from every peril 
had deeply submerged the combative nature of 
humanity. After the boy came two men, one with a 
short spear, and the other with a club, each with a 
huge mass of edible mushroom under his free arm, 
and both badly frightened at the idea of fleeing 
from dangers they knew and feared to dangers they 
did not know and consequently feared much more. 

So was the caravan spread out. It made its way 
across the country with many deviations from a 
fixed line, and with many halts and pauses. Once 
a shrill stridulation filled all the air before them, a 
monster sound compounded of innumerable clickinga 
and high-pitched cries. 

They came to the tip of an eminence and saw 
a great space of ground covered with tiny black 
bodies locked in combat. For quite half a mile in 
either direction the earth was black with ants, 
snapping and biting at each other, .locked in vise- 
like embraces, each combatant couple trampled un- 
der the feet of the contending armies, with no 
thought of surrender or quarter. 

The sound of the clashing of fierce jaw3 upon 
horny armor, the cries of the maimed, and strange 
sounds made by the dying, and above all, the whin- 
ing battle-cry of each of the fighting hordes, made 
a sustained uproar that was almost deafening. 

From either side of the battle-ground a pathway 
led back to separate ant-cities, a pathway marked fay 
the hurrying groups of reinforcements rushing to 
the fight. Tiny as the ants were, for once no lumber- 
ing beetle swaggered insolently in their path, nor 
did the hunting-spiders mark them out for prey. 
Only little creatures smaller than the combatants 
themselves made use of the insect war for purposes 
of their own. 

These were litle gray ants barely more than four 
inches long, who scurried about in and among the 
fighting creatures with marvelous dexterity, carry- 
ing off, piece-meal, the bodies of the dead, and slay- 
ing the wounded for the same fate. 

They hung about the edges of the battle, and in- 
vaded the abandoned areas when the tide of battle 
shifted, insect guerillas, fighting, for their own 
hands, careless of the origin of the quarrel, espous- 



ing no cause, simply salvaging the dead and living 
debris of the combat. 

Burl and his little group of followers had to make 
a wide detour to avoid the battle itself, and the 
passage between bodies of reinforcements hurrying 
to the scene of strife was a matter of some difficulty. 
The ants running rapidly toward the battle-field 
were hugely excited. Their antenna? waved wildly, 
and the infrequent wounded one, limping back to- 
ward the city, was instantly and repeatedly chal- 
lenged by the advancing insects. 

They crossed their antenna? upon hia, and re- 
quired thorough evidence that he was of the proper 
city before allowing him to proceed. Once they 
arrived at the battle-field they flung themselves into 
the fray, becoming lost and indistinguishable in the 
tide of straining, fighting black bodies. 

Men in such a battle, without distinguishing 
marks or battle-cries, would have fought among 
themselves as often as against their foes, but the 
ants had a much simpler method of identification. 
Each ant-city possesses its individual odor — a 
variant on the scent of formic acid — and each in- 
dividual of that city is recognized in his world quite 
simply and surely by the way he smells. 

The little tribe of human beings passed pre- 
cariously behind a group of a hundred excited in- 
sect warriors, and before the following grosp of 
forty equally excited black insects. Burl hurried 
on with his following, putting many miles of peril 
ous territory behind before nightfall. Many times, 
during the day they saw the sudden billowing of a 
red-brown dust-cloud from the earth, and more 
than once they came upon the empty skin and 
drooping stalk of one of the red mushrooms, and 
more often still they came upon the mushrooms 
themselves, grown fat and taut, prepared to send 
their deadly spores into the air when the pressure 
from within became more than the leathery skin 
could stand. 

That night the tribe hid among the bases of giant 
puff-balls, which at a touch shot out a puff of white 
powder resembling smoke. The powder was pre- 
cisely the same in nature as that cast out by the 
red mushrooms, but its effects were marvelously — 
and mercifully — different; it was innocuous. 

Burl slept soundly this night, having been two 
days and a night without rest, but the remainder 
of his tribe, and even Saya, were fearful and afraid, 
listening ceaselessly all through the dark hours for 
the menacing sounds of creatures coming to prey 
upon them. 

And so for a week the march kept on. Burl 
would not allow his tribe to stop to forage for food. 
The red mushrooms were all about. Once one of 
the little children was caught in a whirling eddy of 
red dust, and its mother rushed into the deadly 
stuff to seize it and bring it out. Then the tribe 
had to hide for three days while the two of them 
recovered from the debilitating poison. 

Once, too, they found a half-acre patch of the 
gjant cabbages— there were six of them full grown, 
and a dozen or more smaller ones — and Burl took 
two men and speared two of the huge, twelve-foot 
slugs that fed upon the*leaves. When the tribe 
passed on it was gorged on the fat meat of the slugs, 



AMAZING STORIES 



and there was much soft fur, So that all the tribe- 
folk -wore loin-cloths of the yellow stuff. 

There -were perils, too, in the journey. On the 
fourth day of the tribe's traveling, Burl froze sud- 
denly into stillness. One of the hairy tarantulas — 
a trap-door spider with a black belly — had fallen 
upon a scarabseus beetle, and was devouring it only 
a hundred yards ahead. 

The tribe-folk, trembling, went back for half a 
mile or more in panic-stricken silence, and refused 
to advance until he had led them a detour of two 
or three miles to one side of the dangerous spot. 

Long, fear-ridden marches through perilous coun- 
tries unknown to them, through the golden aisles of 
yellow mushroom forests, over the flaking surfaces 
of plains covered with many-colored "rusts" and 
molds; pauses beside turbid pools whose waters 
were concealed by thick layers of green slime, and 
other evil-smelling ponds which foamed and bubbled 
slowly, which were covered with pasty yeasts that 
rose in strange forms of discolored foam. 

Fleeting glimpses they had of the glistening 
spokes of symmetrical spiders'- webs, whose least 
thread it would have been beyond the power of the 
strongest of the tribe to break. They passed through 
a forest of puff-balls, which boomed when touched 
and shot a puff of vapor from their open mouths. 

Once they saw a long and sinuous insect that fled 
before them and disappeared into a burrow in the 
ground, running with incredible speed upon legs 
of uncountable number. It was a centipede all of 
thirty feet in length, and when they crossed the 
path it iiad followed a horrible stench came to their 
nostrils so that they hurried on. 

Long escape from unguessed dangers brought 
boldness, of a sort, to the pink-skinned men, and 
they would have rested. They went to Burl with 
their complaint, and he simply pointed with his 
hands behind them. There were three little clouds 
of brownish vapor in the air, where they could see, 
along the road they had traversed. To the right of 
them a dust-eloud was just settling, and to the left 
another rose as they looked. 

A new trick of the deadly dust became apparent 
now. Toward the end of a day in which they had 
traveled a long distance, one of the little children 
ran a little to the left of the route its elders were 
following. The earth had taken on a brownish hue, 
and the child stirred up the surface mould with its 
feet. 

The brownish dust that had settled there was 
raised again, and the child ran, crying and choking, 
to its mother, its lungs burning as with fire, and 
its eyes like hot coals. Another day would pass be- 
fore the child could walk. 

In a strange country, knowing nothing of the 
dangers that might assail the tribe while waiting 
for the child to recover, Burl looked about for a 
hiding-place Far over to the right a low cliff, 
perhaps twenty or thirty feet high, showed sides of 
crumbling, yellow clay, and from where Burl stood 
he could see the dark openings of burrows scattered 
here and there upon its face. 

He watched for a time, to see if any bee or wasp 
inhabited them, knowing that many kinds of both 
insects dig burrows for their young, and do not oc- 
cupy them themselves. No dark forms appeared. 



however, and he led his people toward the openings. 

The appearance of the holes confirmed his sur- 
mise. They had been dug months before by mining 
bees, and the entrances were "weathered" and worn. 
The tribe-folk made their way into the three-foot 
tunnels, and hid themselves, seizing the opportunity 
to gorge themselves upon the food they carried. 

Burl stationed himself near the outer end of one 
of the little caves to watch for signs of danger. 
While waiting he poked curiously with his spear at 
a little pile of white and sticky parchment-like stuff 
he saw just within the mouth of the tunnel. 

Instantly movement became visible. Fifty, sixty, 
or a hundred tiny creatures, no more than half an 
inch in length, tumbled pell-mell from the dirty- 
white heap. Awkward legs, tiny, greenish-black 
bodies, and bristles protruding in every direction 
made them strange to look upon. 

They had tumbled from the whitish heap and now 
they made haste to hide themselves in it again, 
moving slowly and clumsily, with immense effort 
and laborious contortions of their bodie3. 

Burl had never seen any insect progress in such 
a slow and ineffective fashion before. He drew one 
little insect back with the point of his spear and 
examined it from a safe distance. Tiny jaws before 
the head met like twin sickles, and the whole body 
was shaped like a rounded diamond lozenge. 

Burl knew that no insect of such small size could 
be dangerous, and leaned over, then took one crea- 
ture in his hand. It wriggled frantically and slip- 
ped from his fingers, dropping upon the soft yellow 
caterpillar-fur he had about his middle. Instantly, 
as if it were a conjuring trick, the little insect van- 
ished, and Burl searched for a matter of minutes 
before he found it hidden deep in the long, soft hairs 
of the fur, resting motionless, and evidently at ease. 

It was a bee-louse, the first larval form of a 
beetle whose horny armor could be seen in frag- 
ments for yards before the clayey cliff-side. Hid- 
den in the openings of the bee's tunnel, it waited 
until the bee-grubs farther back in their separate 
cells should complete their changes of form and 
emerge into the open air, passing over the cluster 
of tiny creatures at the door-way. As the bees 
pass, the little bee-lice would clamber in eager 
haste up their hairy legs and come to rest in the 
fur about their thoraxes. Then, weeks later, when 
the bees in turn made other cells and stocked them 
with honey for the eggs they would lay, the tiny 
creatures would slip from their resting-places and 
be left behind in the fully provisioned cell, to eat 
not only the honey the bee had so laboriously ac- 
quired, but the very grub hatched from the bee's 
egg. - 

Burl had no difficulty in detaching the small in- 
sect and casting it away, but in doing so discovered 
three more that had hidden themselves in his 
furry garment, no doubt thinking it the coat of 
their natural, though unwilling hosts. He plucked 
them away, and discovered more, and more. His 
garment was the hiding-place for dozens of the 
creatures. 

Disgusted and annoyed, he went out of the cavern 
and to a spot some distance away, where he took 
off his robe and pounded it with the flat side of 
his spear to dislodge the visitors. They dropped 



THE RED DUST 



out one by one, reluctantly, and finally the garment 
was clean of them. Then Burl heard a shout from 
the direction of the mining-bee caves, and hastened 
toward the sound. 

It was then drawing toward the time of dark- 
ness, but one of the tribesmen had ventured out 
and found no less than three of the great imperial 
mushrooms. Of the three, one had been attacked 
by a parasitic purple mould, but the gorgeous yel- 
low of the other two was undimmed, and the peo- 
ple were soon feasting upon the firm flesh. 

Burl felt a little pang of jealousy, though he 
joined in the consumption of the find as readily 
as the others, and presently drew a little to one 
side. 

He cast his eyes across the country, levei and 
unbroken as far as the eye could see. The small 
clay cliff was the only inequality visible, and its 
height cut off all vision on one side. But the view 
toward the horizon was unobstructed on three sides, 
and here and there the black speck of a monster 
bee could be seen, droning homeward to its hive 
or burrow, and sometimes the slender form of a 
wasp passed overhead, its transparent wings in- 
visible from the rapidity of their vibrations. 

These flew high in the air, but lower down, 
barely skimming the tops of the many-colored mush- 
rooms and toadstools, fluttering lightly above the 
swollen fungoids, and touching their dainty prohos- 
cides to unspeakable things in default of the 
fragrant flowers that were normal food for their 
races — lower down flew the multitudes of butter- 
flies the age of mushrooms had produced. 

White and yellow and red and brown, pink and 
blue and purple and green, every shade and every 
color, every size and almost every shape, they 
flitted gaily in the air. There were some so tiny 
that they would barely have shaded Burl's face, and 
some beneath whose slender bodies he could have 
hidden himself. They flew in a riot of colors and 
tftits above a world of foul mushroom growths, and 
turgid, slime-covered ponds. 

Burl, temporarily out of the limelight because 
of the discovery of a store of food by another mem- 
ber of the tribe, bethought himself of an idea. Soon 
night would come on, the cloud-bank would turn 
red in the west, ami then darkness would lean down- 
ward from the sky. With the coming of that time 
these creatures of the day would seek hiding- 
places, and the air would be given over to the furry 
moths that flew by night. He, Burl, would mark the 
spot where one of the larger creatures alighted, 
and would creep up upon it, with his spear held fast. 

His wide blue eyes brightened at the thought, 
and he sat himself down to watch. After a long 
time the soft, down-reaching fingers of the night 
touched the shaded aisles of the mushroom forests, 
and a gentle haze arose above the golden glades. 
One by one the gorgeous fliers of the daytime dip- 
ped down and furled their painted wings. The over- 
hanging clouds became darker — finally black, and 
the slow, deliberate rainfall that lasted all through 
the night began. Burl rose and crept away into 
the darkness, his spear held in readiness. 

Through the black night, beneath deeper black- 
nesses which were the dark undersideB of huge 
toadstools, creeping silently, with every sense alert 



for sign of danger or for hope of giant prey, Burl 
made his slow advance. 

A glorious butterfly of purple and yellow mark- 
ings, whose wings spread out for three yards on 
either side of its delicately formed body, had hidden 
itself barely two hundred yards away. Burl could 
imagine it, now, preening its slender limbs and 
combing from its long and slender proboscis any 
trace of the delectable foodstuffs on which it had 
fed during the day. Burl moved slowly and 
cautiously forward, all eyes and ears. 

He heard an indescribable sound in a thicket a 
little to his left, and shifted his course. The sound 
was the faint whistling of air through the breath- 
ing-holes along an insect's abdomen. Then came 
the delicate rustling of filmy wings being stretched 
and closed again, and the movement of sharply 
barbed feet upon the soft earth. Burl moved in 
breathless silence, holding his spear before him 
in readiness to plunge it into the gigantic butter- 
fly's soft body. 

The mushrooms here were grown thickly to- 
gether, so there was no room for Burl's body to pass 
between their stalks, and the rounded heads were 
deformed and misshapen from their crowdings. Burl 
spent precious moments in trying to force a silent 
passage, but had to own himself beaten. Then he 
clambered up upon the spongy mass of mushroom 
heads, trusting to luck that they would sustain his 
weight. 

The blackness was intense, so that even the forms 
of objects before him were lost in obscurity. He 
moved forward for some ten yards, however, walk- 
ing gingerly over his precarious foothold. Then he 
felt rather than saw the opening before him. A 
body moved below him. 

Burl raised his spear, and with a yell plunged 
down on the back of the moving thing, thrusting 
his spear with all the force he could command. He 
landed on a shifting form, but his yell of triumph 
turned to a scream of terror. 

Thi3 was not the yielding body of a slender but- 
terfly that he -had come upon, nor had his spear 
.penetrated the creature's soft flesh. He had fallen 
upon the shini-ng back of one of the huge, meat- 
eating beetles, and his spear had slid across the 
horny armor, and then stuck fast, having pierced 
only the leathery tissue between the insect's head 
and thorax. 

Burl's terror was pitiable at the realization, but 
as nothing to the ultimate panic which possessed 
him when the creature beneath him uttered a grunt 
of fright and pain, and, spreading its stiff wing- 
cases wide, shot upward in a crazy, panic-stricken, 
rocket-like flight toward the sky. 

CHAPTER III 

The Sexton-Beetles 

BURL fell headforemost upon the spongy top 
of a huge toadstool that split with the im- 
pact and let him through to the ground be- 
neath, powdering him with its fine spores. He 
came to rest with his naked shoulder half-way 
through the yielding flesh of a mushroom-stalk, and 



AMAZING STORIES 



lay there for a seoond, catching hia breath to scream 
again. 

Then he heard the whining buzz of hia attempted 
prey. There was something wrong with the beetle. 
Burl's spear had struck it in an awkward spot, and 
it was rocketing upward in erratic flight that 
ended in a crash two or three hundreds yards away. 

Burl sprang up in an instant. Perhaps, despite 
his mistake, he had 3lain this infinitely more worthy 
victim. He rushed toward the spot where it had 
fallen. 

His wide blue eyes pierced the darkness well 
enough to enable him to sheer off from masses of 
toadstools, but he could distinguish no details — 
nothing but forms. He heard the beetle floundering 
upon the ground; then heard it mount again into 
the air, more clumsily than before. 

Its wing-beats no longer kept up a sustained note. 
They thrashed the air irregularly and wildly. The 
flight was zigzag and uncertain, and though longer 
than the first had been, it ended similarly, in a 
heavy fall. Another period of floundering, and the 
beetle took to the air again just before Burl ar- 
rived at the spot. 

It was obviously seriously hurt, and Burl forgot 
the dangers of the night in his absorption in the 
chase. He darted after his prey, fleet-footed and 
agile, taking chances that in cold blood he would 
never have thought of. 

Twice, in the pain-racked struggles of the mon- 
ster beetle, he arrived at the spot where the gigantic 
insect flung itself about madly, insanely, fighting 
it knew not what, striking out with colossal wings 
and legs, dazed and drunk with agony. And each 
time it managed to get aloft in flight that was 
weaker and more purposeless. 

Crazy, fleeing from the torturing spear that 
pierced its very vitals, the beetle blundered here 
and there, floundering among the mushroom 
thickets in spasms that were constantly more pro- 
longed and more agonized, but nevertheless flying 
heavily, lurching drunkenly, managing to graze the 
tops of the toadstools in one more despairing, tor- 
mented flight. 

And Burl followed, aflame with the fire of the 
chase, arriving at the scene of each successive, 
panic-stricken struggle on the ground just after the 
beetle had taken flight again, but constantly more 
closely on the heels of the weakening monster. 

At last he came up panting, and found the giant 
lying upon the earth, moving feebly, apparently 
unable to rise. How far he was from the tribe, 
Burl did not know, nor did the question occur 
to him at the moment. He waited for the beetle 
to be still, trembling with excitement and eager- 
ness. The struggles of the huge form grew more 
feeble, and at last ceased. Burl moved forward and 
grasped his spear. He wrenched at it to thrust 
again. 

In an instant the beetle had roused itself, and 
was exerting its last atom of strength, galvanized 
into action by the agony caused by Burl's seizure 
of the spear. A great wing-cover knocked Burl 
twenty feet, and flung him against the base of a 
mushroom, where he lay, half stunned. But then 
a strangely pungent scent came to his nostrils—^ 
the scent of the red mushrooms ! 



He staggered to his feet and fled, while behind 
him the gigantic beetle crashed and floundered — 
Burl heard a tearing and ripping sound. The in- 
sect had torn the covering of one of the red mush- 
rooms, tightly packed with the fatal red dust. At 
the noise, Burl's speed was doubled, but he could 
still hear the frantic struggles of the dying beetle 
grow to a very crescendo of desperation. 

The creature broke free and managed to rise in 
a final flight, fighting for breath and life, weakened 
and tortured by the spear and the horrible spores 
of the red mushrooms. Then it crashed suddenly to 
the earth and was still. The red dust had killed it. 

In time to come, Burl might learn to use the red 
dust as poison gas had been used by his ancestors 
of thirty thousand years before, but now he was 
frightened and alone, lost from his tribe, and with 
no faintest notion of how to find them. He crouched 
beneath a h»ge toadstool and waited for dawn, 
listening with terrified apprehension for the ripping 
sound that would mean the bursting of another of 
the red mushrooms. 

Only the wing beats of night-flying creatures came 
to his ears, however, and the discordant noises of 
the four-foot truffle -beetles as they roamed the 
aisles of the mushroom forests, seeking the places 
beneath which their instinct told them fungoid 
dainties awaited the courageous miner. The eternal 
dripping of the rain-drops falling at long intervals 
from the overhanging cloud3 formed a soft ob- 
bligato to the whole- 
Burl listened, knowing there were red toadstools 
all about, but not once during the whole of the long, 
dark hours did the rending noise tell of a bursting 
fungus casting loose its freight of deadly dust upon 
the air. Only when day came again, and the chill 
dampness of the night was succeeded by the steam- 
ing humidity of the morning, did a tall pyramid of 
brownish-red stuff leap suddenly into the air from 
a ripped mushroom covering. 

Then Burl stood up and looked around. Here and 
there, all over the whole countryside, slowly and at 
intervals, the cones of fatal red sprang into the air. 
Had Burl lived thirty thousand years earlier, he 
might have likened the effect to that of shells 
bursting from a leisurely bombardment, but as it 
was he saw in them only fresh and inexorable 
dangers added to an already peril-ridden existence. 

A hundred yards from where he had hidden dur- 
ing the night the body of his victim lay, crumpled 
up and limp. Burl approached speculatively. He had 
come even before the ants appeared to take their 
toll of the carcass, and not even a buzzing flesh-fly 
had placed its maggots on the unresisting form. 

The long, whiplike antenna? lay upon the carpet 
of mold and rust, and the fiercely toothed legs were 
drawn close against the body. The many-faeeted 
eyes stared unseeingly, and the stiff and horny wing- 
cases were rent and torn. 

When Burl went to the other side of the dead 
beetle he saw something that filled him with elation. 
His spear had been held between his body and the 
beetle's during that mad flight, and at the final 
crash, when Burl shot away from the fear -crazed in- 
sect, the weight of his body had forced the spear- 
point between the joints of the corselet and the 
neck. Even if the red dust had not finished the 



THE RED DUST 



creature, the spear wound in time would have ended 
its life. 

Burl was thrilled once more by his superlative 
greatness, and conveniently forgot that it was the 
red dust that had actually administered the coup 
de grace. It was so much more pleasant to look 
upon himself as the mighty slayer that he hacked 
off one of the barb-edged limbs to carry back to his 
tribe in evidence of his feat. He took the long 
antennas, too, as further proof. 

Then he remembered that he did not know where 
his tribe was to be found. He had no faintest idea 
of the direction in which the beetle had flown. As 
a matter of fact, the course of the beetle had been 
in turn directed toward every point of the compass, 
and there was no possible way of telling the relation 
of its final landing-place to the point from which it 
had started. 

Burl wrestled with his problem for an hour, and 
then gave up in disgust. He set off at random, 
with the leg of the huge insect flung over his 
shoulder and the long antenna? clasped in his hand 
with his spear. He turned to look at his victim 
of the night before just before plunging into the 
near-by mushroom forest, and saw that it was al- 
ready the center of a mass of tiny black bodies, pull- 
ing and hacking at the tough armor, and carving 
out great lumps of the succulent flesh to be carried 
to the near-by ant city. 

In the teeming life of the insect world death is 
an opportunity for the survivors. There is a 
strangely tense and fearful competition for the 
bodies of the slain. There had been barely an hour 
of daylight in which the ants might seek for pro- 
vender, yet in that little time the freshly killed 
beetle had been found and was being skilfully and 
carefully exploited. When the body of one of the 
larger insects fell to the ground, there was a mighty 
rush, a fierce race, among all the tribes of scaven- 
gers to see who should be first. 

Usually the ants had come upon the scene and 
were inquisitively exploring the carcass long be- 
fore even the flesh-flies had arrived, who dropped 
their living maggots upon the creature. The blue- 
bottles came still later, to daub their masses of 
white eggs about the delicate membranes of the eye. 

And while all the preceding scavengers were at 
work, furtive beetles and tiny insects burrowed be- 
low the reeking body to attack the highly scented 
flesh from a fresh angle. 

Each working independently of the others, they 
commonly appeared in the order of the delicacy of 
the sense which could lead them to a source of food, 
though accident could and sometimes did afford one 
group of workers in putrescence an advantage over 
the others. 

Thus, sometimes a blue-bottle anticipated even 
the eager ants; and again the very flesh-flies drop- 
ped their squirming offspring upon a limp form that 
was already being undermined by white- bellied 
things working in the darkness below the body. 

Burl grimaced at the busy ants and buzzing flie3, 
and disappeared into the mushroom forest. Here 
for a long time he moved cautiously and silently 
through the aisles of tangled stalks and the spongy, 
round heads of the fungoids. Now and then he saw 
one of the red toadstools, and made a wide detour 



around it. Twice they hurst within his sight, cir- 
cumscribed as his vision was by the toadstools 
among which he was traveling. 

Each time he ran hastily to put as much distance 
as possible between himself and the deadly red dust. 
He traveled for an hour or more, looking constantly 
for familiar landmarks that might guide him to his 
tribe. He knew that if he came upon any place he 
had seen while with his tribe he could follow the 
path they had traveled and in time rejoin them, 

For many hours he went on, alert for signs of 
danger. He was quite ignorant of the faet that 
therewere such thingsas points of the compass, and 
though he had a distinct notion that he was not 
moving in a straight line, he did not realize that he 
was actually moving in a colossal half -circle. After 
walking steadily for nearly four hours he was no 
more than three miles in a direct line from his 
starting-point. As it happened, his uncertainty of 
direction was fortunate. 

The night before the tribe had been feeding 
happily upon one of the immense edible mushrooms, 
when they heard Burl's abruptly changing cry. It 
had begun as a shout of triumph, and ended as a 
scream of fear. Then they heard hurried wing- 
beats as a creature rose into the air in a scurry of 
desperation. The throbbing of huge wings ended 
in a heavy fall, followed by another flight. 

Velvety darkness masked the sky, and the tribes- 
men could only stare off into the blackness, where 
their leader had vanished, and begin to tremble, 
wondering what they should do in a strange country 
with no bold chief to guide them. 

He was the first man to whom the tribe had ever 
offered allegiance, but their submission had been 
ali the more complete for that fact, and his loss 
was the more appalling; 

Burl had mistaken their lack of timidity. He 
had thought it independence, and indifference to 
him. Aa a matter of fact, it was security because 
the tribe felt safe under his tutelage. Now that he 
had vanished, and in a fashion that seemed to mean 
his death, their old fears returned to them reen- 
forced by the strangeness of their surroundings. 

They huddled together and whispered their . 
fright to one another, listening the while in panic- 
stricken apprehension for signs of danger. The 
tribesmen visualized Burl caught in fiercely toothed 
limbs, heing rent and torn in mid air by horny, in- 
satiable jaws, his blood falling in great spurts to- 
ward the earth below. They caught a faint, reedy 
cry, and shuddered, pressing closer together. 

And so through the long night they waited in 
trembling silence. Had a hunting spider appeared 
among them they would not have lifted a hand to 
defend themselves, but would have fled despairingly, 
would probably have scattered and lost touch with 
one another, and spent the remainder of their lives 
as solitary fugitives, snatching fear-ridden rest 
in strange hiding-places. 

But day came again, and they looked into each 
other's eyes, reading in each the selfsame panii 
and fear. Saya was probably the most pitiful of 
all the group. Burl was to have been her mate, ant 
her face was white and drawn beyond that of anv 
of the meet of the tribefolk. 

With the .das, they did not move, feat remained 



890 



AMAZING STORIES 



clustered about the huge mushroom on which they 
had been feeding the night before. They spoke in 
hushed and fearful tones, huddled together, search- 
ing all the horizon for insect enemies. Saya would 
not eat, but sat still, staring before her in unseeing 
indifference. Burl was dead. 

A hundred yards from where they crouched a red 
mushroom glistened in the pale light of the new 
day. Its tough skin was taut and bulging, resisting 
the pressure of the spores within. But slowly, as 
the morning wore on, some of the moisture that had 
kept the skin soft and flaccid during the night 
evaporated. 

The skin had a strong tendency to contract, like 
green leather when drying. The spores within it 
strove to expand. The opposing forces produced 
a tension that grew greater and greater as more and 
more of the moisture was absorbed by the air. At 
last the akin could hold no longer. 

With a ripping sound that could be heard for 
hundreds of feet, the tough wrapping split and tore 
across its top, and with a hollow, booming noise the 
compressed mass of deadly spores rushed into the 
air, making a pyramidal cloud of brown-red dust 
some sixty feet in height. 

The tribesmen quivered at the noise and faced the 
dust cloud for a fleeting instant, then ran pell- 
mell to escape the slowly moving tide of death as 
the almost imperceptible breeze wafted it slowly 
toward them. Men and women, boys and girls, they 
fled in a mad rush from the deadly stuff, not paus- 
ing to see that even as it advanced it settled slowly 
to the ground, nor stopping to observe its path that 
they might step aside and let it go safely by. 

Saya fled with the rest, but without their ex- 
treme panic. She fled because the others had done 
so,, and ran more carelessly, struggling with a 
half-formed idea that it did not particularly matter 
whether she were caught or not. 

She fell slightly behind the others, without being 
noticed. Then quite abruptly a stone turned under 
her foot, and she fell headlong, striking her head 
violently against a second stone. Then she lay 
quite still while the red cloud billowed slowly to- 
ward her, drifting gently in the faint, hardly per- 
ceptible breeze. 

It drew nearer and nearer, settling slowly, but 
still a huge and menacing mass of deadly dust. It 
gradually flattened out, too, so that though it had 
been a rounded cone at first, it flowed over the minor 
inequalities of the ground as a huge and tenuous 
leech might have crawled, sucking from all breath- 
ing creatures the life they had within them. 

A hundred and fifty yards away, a hundred yards 
away, then only fifty yards away. From where 
Saya lay unconscious on the earth, eddies within the 
moving mass could be seen, and the edges took on a 
striated appearance, telling of the curling of the 
dust wreaths in the larger mass of deadly powder. 

The deliberate advance kept on, seeming almost 
purposeful. It would have seemed possible to draw 
from the unhurried, menacing movement of the 
poisonous stuff that some malign intelligence was 
concealed in it, that it wa3, in fact, a living crea- 
ture. But when the misty edges of the cloud were 
no more than twenty-five yards from Saya's pros- 
trate body a breeze from one side sprang up—a, 



vagrant, fitful little breeze, that first halted the 
red cloud and threw it into confusion and then drove 
it to one side, so that it passed Saya without harm- 
ing her, though a single trailing wisp of dark-red 
mist floated very close to her. 

Then for a time Saya lay still indeed, only her 
breast rising and falling gently with faint and ir- 
regular breaths. Her head had struck a sharp- 
edged stone in her fall, and a tiny pool of sticky 
red had gathered from the wound. 

Perhaps thirty feet from, where she lay, three 
small toadstools grew in a little clump, their bases 
so close together that they seemed but one. From 
between two of them, however, just where they 
parted, twin tufts of reddish threads appeared, 
twinkling back and forth, and in and out. As if 
they had given some reassuring sign, two slender 
antenna? followed, then bulging eyes, and then a 
small black body which had bright-red scalloped 
markings upon the wing-cases- 
It was a tiny beetle no more than eight inches 
long — a. burying-beetle. It drew near Saya's body 
and clambered upon her, explored the ground by her 
side, moving all the time in feverish haste, and at 
last dived into the ground beneath her shoulder, 
casting back a little shower of hastily dug earth a3 
it disappeared. 

Ten minutes later another similar insect appeared, 
and upon the heels of the second a third. Each of 
them made the same hasty examination, and each 
dived under the still form. Presently the earth 
seemed to billow at a spot along Saya's side, then 
at another. Perhaps ten minutes after the arrival 
of the third beetle a little rampart had reared itself 
all about Saya's body, precisely following the out- 
line of her form. Then her body moved slightly, in 
a number of tiny jerks, and seemed to settle per- 
haps half an inch into the ground. 

The burying beetles were of those who exploited 
the bodies of the fallen. Working from below, they 
excavated the earth from the under side of such 
prizes as they came upon, then turned upon their 
backs and thrust with their legs, jerking the body 
so it sank into the shallow excavation they had pre- 
pared, 

The process would be repeated until at last the 
whole of the gift of fortune had sunk below the sur- 
rounding surface and the loosened earth fell in up- 
on the top, thus completing the inhumation. 

Then in the darkness the beetles would feast and 
rear their young, gorging upon the plentiful supply 
of succulent foodstuff they had hidden from jealous 
fellow scavengers above them. 

But Saya was alive. Thirty thousand years be- 
fore, when scientists examined into the habits of 
the burying-beetles, or the sexton-beetles, they had 
declared that fresh meat or living meat would not 
be touched. They based their statement solely upon 
the fact that the insects (then tiny creatures in- 
deed) did not appear until the trap-meat placed by 
the investigators had remained untouched for days. 

Conditions had changed in thirty thousand years. 
The ever-present ants and the sharp-eyed flies were 
keen rivals of the brightly arrayed beetles. Usually 
the tribes of creatures who worked in the darkness 
below ground came after the ants had taken their 
toll, and the flies sipped daintily.. 



THE RED DUST 



891 



When Saya fell unconscious upon the ground, 
however, it was the one accident that caused the 
burying-beetle to find her first, before the ants had 
come to tear the flesh from her slender, soft-skinned 
body. She breathed gently and irregularly, her face 
drawn with the sorrow of the night before, while 
desperately hurrying beetles swarmed beneath her 
body, channeling away the earth so that she would 
sink lower and lower into the ground. 

An inch, and a long wait. Then she sank slowly 
a second inch. The bright-red tufts of thread ap- 
peared again, and a beetle made his way to the 
open air. He moved hastily about, inspecting the 
progress of the work. He dived below again. An- 
other inch, and after a long time another inch was 
excavated. 

Burl stepped out from a group of over-shadowing 
toadstools and halted. He cast his eyes over the 
landscape, and was struck by its familiarity. It was, 
in point of fact, very near the spot he had left 
the night before, in pursuit of a colossal wounded 
beetle. 

Burl moved back and forth, trying to account for 
the sensation of recognition, and then trying to ap- 
proximate the place from which be had last seen it. 

He passed within fifty feet of the spot where Saya 
lay, now half buried in the ground. The loose earth 
cast up about her body had begun to fall in little 
rivulets upon her. One of her shoulders was al- 
ready screened from view. 

Burl passed on, unseeing. He was puzzling over 
the direction from which he had seen the particular 
section of countryside before him. Perhaps a little 
farther on he would come to the place. He hurried 
a little. In a moment he recognized his location. 
There was the great edible mushroom, half broken 
away, from which the tribe had been feeding. There 
were the mining bee burrows. 

His feet stirred up a fine dust, and he stopped 
short, A red mushroom had covered the earth with 
a thin layer of its impalpable, deadly powder. Burl 
understood why the tribe had gone, and a cold 
sweat came upon his body. Was Saya safe, 
or had the whole tribe succumbed to the poisonous 
stuff? Had they all, men and women and children, 
. died in convulsions of gasping strangulation. 

He hurried to retrace his footsteps. There was 
a fragment of mushrooms on the ground. Here was 
a spear, cast away by one of the tribesmen in his 
flight. Burl broke into a run. 

The little excavation into which Saya was sink- 
ing, inch by inch, was all of twenty-five feet to the 
right of the path. Burl dashed on, frantic with 
anxiety about the tribe, but most of all about Saya. 
Saya's body quivered and sank a fraction more into 
the earth. 

Half a dozen litle rivulets of dirt were tumbling 
upon her body now. In a matter of minutes she 
would be hidden from view. Burl ran madly past 
her, too busy searching the mushroom thickets be- 
fore him with his eyes to dream of looking upon the 
ground. 

Twenty yards from a huge toadstool thicket 
a noise arrested him sharply. There was a crashing 
and breaking of the brittle, spongy growths. Twin 
tapering antenna appeared, and then a monster 



beetle lurched into the open space, its norrible, 
gaping jaws stretched wide. 

It was all of eight feet long, and its body was 
held up from the ground by six crooked, saw- 
toothed limbs. Its huge multiple eyes stared with 
machinelike preoccupation at the world. 

It advanced deliberately, with a clanking and 
clashing as of a hideous machine. Burl fled on the 
instant, running as madly away from the beetle as 
he had a moment before been running toward it. 

A little depression in the earth was before him. 
He did not swerve, but made to leap it. As he shot 
over it, however, the glint of pink skin caught his 
eye, and there was impressed upon his brain with 
photographic completeness the picture of Saya, ly- 
ing limp and helpless, sinking slowly into the 
ground, with tiny rills of earth falling down the 
sides of -the excavation upon her. It seemed to 
Burl's eye that she quivered slightly as he saw. 

There was a terrific struggle within Burl. Be- 
hind him the colossal meat-eating beetle. Beneath 
him Saya, whom he loved. There was certain death 
lurching toward him on evilly glittering legs, and 
there was life for his race and tribe lying in the 
shallow pit. 

He turned, aware with a sudden reckless glow 
that he was throwing away his life, aware that 
he was deliberately giving himself over to death, 
and stood on the side of the little pit nearest the 
great beetle, his puny spear held defiantly at the 
ready. In his left hand he held just such a leg as 
those which bore the living creature toward him. 
He had torn it from the body of just such a mon- 
ster hut a few hours ago, a monster in whose death 
he had had a share. With a yell of insane defiance, 
he flung the fiercely toothed limb at his advancing 
opponent. 

The sharp teeth cut into the base of one of the 
beetle's antennae, and it ducked clumsily, then 
seized the missile in its fierce jaws and crushed it 
in frenzy of rage. There was meat within it, sweet 
and juicy meat that pleased the beetle's palate. 

It forgot the man, standing there, waiting for 
death. It crunched the missile that had attacked 
it, eating the palatable contents of the horny armor, 
confusing the blow with the object that had de- 
livered it, and evidently satisfied that an enemy had 
been conquered and was being devoured. A moment 
later it turned and lumbered off to investigate an- 
other mushroom thicket. 

And Burl turned quickly and dragged Saya's 
limp form from the grave that had been prepared 
for it by the busy insect scavengers. Earth fell 
from her shoulders, from her hair, and from the 
mass of yellow fur about her middle, and three little 
beetles with black and red markings scurried in 
terrified haste for cover, while Burl bore Saya to a 
resting-place of soft mold. 

Burl waa.an ignorant savage, and to him Saya's 
deathlike unconsciousness was like death itself, but 
dumb misery smote him, , and he laid her down 
gently, while tears came to his eyes and he called 
her name again and again in an agony of grief. 

For an hour he sat there beside her, a man so 
lately pleased with himself above all creatures for 
having slain one huge beetle and put another to 



892 



AMAZING STORIES 



Right, as he would have looked upon it, now a 
broken-hearted, little pink- skinned man, weeping 
like a child, hunched up and bowed over with sorrow. 
Then Saya slowly opened her eyes and stirred 
weakly* 

CHAPTER IV 

The Forest of Death 

THEY were oblivious to everything but each 
Dther, Saya resting in still half -incredulous 
happiness against Burl's shoulder while he 
told her in little, jerky sentences of his pursuit of 
the colossal flying beetle, of his search for the tribe, 
and then his discovery of her apparently lifeless 
body. 

When he spoke of the monster that had lurched 
from the mushroom thicket, and of the desperation 
with which he had faced it, Saya pressed close and 
looked at him with wondering and wonderful eye3. 
She could understand his willingness to die, believ- 
ing her dead. A little while before she had felt the 
same indifference to life. 

A timid, frightened whisper roused them from 
their absorption, and they looked up. One of the 
tribesmen stood upon one foot some distance away, 
staring at them, almost convinced that he looked 
upon the living dead. A sudden movement on the 
part of either of them would have sent him in a 
panic back into the mushroom forest. Two or three 
blond heads bobbed and vanished among the tanglad 
stalks. Wide and astonished eyes gazed at the twe 
they had believed the prey of malignant creatures. 

The tribe had come slowly back to the mushroom 
they had been eating, leaderless, and convinced that 
Saya had fallen a victim to the deadly dust. In- 
stead, they found her sitting by the side of their 
chief, apparently restored to them in some mirac- 
ulous fashion. 

Burl spoke, and the pink-skinned people came 
timorously from their hiding-places. They ap- 
proached warily and formed a half-circle before the 
seated pair. Burl spoke again, and presently one 
of the bravest dared approach and touch him. 
Instantly a babble of the crude and labial language 
spoken by the tribe broke out. Awed questions 
and exclamations of thankfulness, then curious in- 
terrogations filled the air. 

Burl, for once, showed some common sense. In- 
stead of telling them in his usual vainglorious 
fashion of the adventures he had undergone, he 
merely cast down the two long and tapering 
antennte from the flying beetle that he had torn 
from its dead body. They looked at them, and 
recognized their origin. Amazement and admiration 
showed upon their faces. Then Burl rose and 
abruptly ordered two of the men to make a chair 
of their hands for Saya. She was weak from the 
effects of the blow she had received. The two men 
humbly advanced and did as they were bid. 

Then the march was taken up again, more slowly 
than before, because of Saya as a burden, but 
none the less steadily. Burl led his people across 
the country, marching in advance and with every 
nerve alert for signs of danger, but with more con- 



fidence and less timidity than he had ever displayed 
before. 

All that noontime and that afternoon they filed 
steadily along, the tribesfolk keeping in a compact 
group close behind Burl. The man who had 
thrown away his spear had recovered it on an order 
from Burl, and the little party fairly bristled with 
weapons, though Burl knew well that they were 
liable to be cast away as impediments if flight 
should be necessary. 

He was determined that his people should learn to 
fight the great creatures about them, instead of de- 
pending upon their legs for escape. He had led 
them in an attack upon great slugs, but they were 
defenseless creatures, incapable of more dangerous 
maneuvers than spasmodic jerkings of their great 
bodies. 

The next time danger should threaten them, and 
especially if it came while their new awe of him 
held good, he was resolved to force them to join 
him in fighting it. 

He had not long to wait for an opportunity to 
strengthen the spirit of his followers by a success- 
ful battle. The clouds toward the west were taking 
on a dull-red hue, which was the nearest to a sunset 
that was ever seen in the world of Burl's experience, 
when a bumble bee droned heavily over their heads, 
making for its hive. 

The little group of people on the ground looked 
up and saw a scanty load of pollen packed in the 
stiff bristles of the insect's hind legs. The bees of 
the world had a hard time securing food upon the 
nearly ftowerlesg planet, but this one had evidently 
made a find. Its crop was nearly filled with hard- 
gathered, viscous honey destined for the hival store. 

It sped onward, heavily, its almost transparent 
wings mere blurs in the air from the rapidity of 
their vibration. Burl saw its many-faceted eyes 
staring before it in worried preoccupation as it 
soared' in laborious speed over his head, some fifty 
feet up. 

He dropped his glance, and then his eyes lighted 
with excitement. A slender-bodied wasp was shoot- 
ing upward from an ambush it had found in a 
thicket of toadstools. It darted swiftly and grace- 
fully upon the bee, which swerved and tried to flee. 
The droning buzz of the bee's wings rose to a 
higher note as it strove to increase its speed. The 
more delicately formed wasp headed the clumsier in- 
seet back. 

The bee turned again and fled in terror. Each 
of the insects was slightly more than four feet in 
length, but the bee was much the heavier, and it 
could not attain the speed of which the wasp was 
capable. 

The graceful form of the hunting insect rapidly 
overhauled its fleeing prey, and the wasp dashed 
in and closed with the bee at a point almost over 
the heads of the tribesmen. In a clawing, biting 
tangle of thrashing, transparent wings and black 
bodies, the two creatures tumbled to the earth. 
They fell perhaps thirty yards from where Burl 
stood watching. 

Over and over the two insects rolled, now one 
uppermost, and then the other. The bee was strug- 
gling -desperately to insert her sting in the more 
supple body of her adversary. She writhed end 



THE RED DUST 



893 



twisted, fighting with jaw and mandible, wing and 
claw. 

The wasp was uppermost, and the bee lay on her 
hack, fighting in panic-stricken desperation. The 
wasp saw an opening, her jaws darted in, and there 
was an instant of confusion. Then suddenly the 
bee, dazed, was upright with the wasp upon her. A 
movement too quick for the eye to follow — and the 
bee collapsed. The wasp had bitten her in the neck 
where all the nerve-cords passed, and the bee was 
dead. 

Burl waited a moment more, aflame with excite- 
ment. He knew, as did al! the tribefolk, what 
might happen next. When he saw the second act 
of the tragedy well begun, Burl snapped quick and 
harsh orders to his spear-armed men, and they fol- 
lowed him in a wavering line, their weapons tightly 
clutched. 

Knowing the habits of the insects as they were 
forced to know them, they knew that the venture 
was one of the least dangerous they could under- 
take with fighting creatures the siae of the wasp, 
but the idea of attacking the great creatures whose 
sharp stings could- annihilate any of them with a 
touch, the mere thought of taking the initiative was 
appalling. Had their awe of Burl been less complete 
they would not have dreamed of following him. 

The second act of the tragedy had begun. The 
bee had been slain by the wasp, a carnivorous in- 
sect normally, but the wasp knew that sweet honey 
was concealed in the half-filled crop of the bee. Had 
the bee arrived safely at the hive, the sweet and 
sticky liquid would have been disgorged and added 
to the hival store. Now, though the bee's journey 
was ended and its flesh was to be crunched and de- 
voured by the wasp, the honey was the first object 
of the pirate's solicitude.* The dead insect was 
rolled over upon its back, and with eager haste the 
3layer began to exploit the body. 

Burl and his men were creeping nearer, but with 
a gesture Burl bade them halt for a moment. The 
wasp's first move was to force the disgorgement of 
the honey from the bee's crop, and with feverish 
eagerness it pressed upon the limp body until the 
shining, sticky liquid appeared. Then the wasp 
began in ghoulish ecstasy to lick up the sweet stuff, 
utterly absorbed in the feast. 

Many thousands of years before, the absorption 
of the then tiny insect had been noticed when 
engaged in a similar feat, and it was recorded in 
books moidered into dust long ages before Burl's 
birth that its rapture was so great that it had been 
known to fall a victim to a second bandit while 
engaged in the horrible banquet. 

Burl had never read the books, but he had been 
told that the pirate would continue its feast even 
though seized by a greater enemy, unable to tear it- 
self from the nectar gathered by the creature it 
had slain. 

The tribesmen waited until the wasp had begun 
its orgy, licking up the toothsome stuff disgorged 
by its dead prey It ate in gluttonous haste, blind 
to all sights, deaf to all sounds, able to think of 
nothing, conceive of nothing, but the delights of the 
liquid it was devouring. 

At a signal the tribesmen darted forward. They 

•The .pirate is the PMIanthtu ASivorus. 



wavered when near the slender-waisted gourmet, 
however, and Burl was the first to thrust his spear 
with all his strength into the thinly armored body. 

Then the others took courage. A short, horny 
spear penetrated the very vitals of the wasp. A 
club fell with terrific impact upon the slender 
waist. There was a crackling, and the long, spidery 
limbs quivered and writhed, while the tribesmen 
fell back in fear, but without cause. 

Burl struck again, and the wasp fell into two 
writhing halves, helpless for harm. The pink- 
skinned men danced in triumph, and the women and 
children ventured near, delighted. 

Only Burl noticed that even as the wasp was 
dying, sundered and pierced with spears, its slender 
tongue licked out in one last, ecstatic taste of the 
nectar that had been its undoing. 

Burdened with the pollen-covered legs of the 
giant bee, and filled with the meat from choice por- 
tions of the wasp's muscular limbs, the tribe re- 
sumed its journey. This time Burl had men behind 
him, still timid, still prone to flee at the slightest 
alarm, but infinitely more dependable than they had 
been before. 

They had attacked and slain a wasp whose sting 
would have killed any of them. They had done 
battle under the leadership of Burl, whose spear 
had struck the first blow. , Henceforth they were 
sharers, in a mild way, of his transcendent glory, 
and henceforth they were more like followers of a 
mighty chief and less like spineless worshipers of 
a demigod whose feats they were too timid to 
emulate- 
That night they hid among a group of giant puff- 
balls, feasting on the-loads of meat they had carried 
thus far with them. Burl watched them now with- 
out jealousy of their good spirits. He and Saya sat 
a little apart, happy to be near each other, speaking 
in low tones. After a time darkness fell, and the 
tribefolk became shapeless bodies speaking in voices 
that grew drowsy and were silent. The black forms 
of the toadstool heads and huge puffballs were but 
darker against a dark sky. 

The nightly rain began to fall, drop by drop, drop 
by drop, upon the damp and humid earth. Only 
Burl remained awake for a little while, and his last 
waking thought was of pride, disinterested pride. 
He had the first reward of the ruler, gratification 
in the greatness of his people. 

The red mushrooms had continued to show their 
glistening heads, though Burl thought they were 
les3 numerous than in the territory from which 
the tribe had fled. All along the route, now to the 
right, now to the left, they had burst and sent 
their masses of deadly dust into the air. 

Many times the tribefolk had been forced to make 
a detour to avoid a slowly spreading cloud of death- 
dealing spores. Once or twice their escapes had been 
narrow indeed, but so far there had been no deaths. 

Burl had observed that the mushrooms normally 
burst only in the daytime, and for a while had 
thought of causing bis followers to do their journey- 
ing in the night. Only the obvious disadvantages 
of such a course — the difficulty of discovering food, 
and the prowling spiders that roamed in the dark- 
ness — had prevented him. The idea still stayed 



894 



AMAZING STORIES 



with him, however, and two days after the fight 
with the hunting wasp he put it in practise. 

The tribe came to the top of a email riae in the 
ground. For an hour they had been marching and 
counter-marching to avoid the suddenly appearing 
clouds of dust. Once they had been nearly hemmed 
in, and only by mad sprinting did they escape when 
three of the dull-red clouds seemed to flow together, 
closing three sides of a circle. 

They came to the little hillock and halted. Be- 
fore them stretched a plain all of four miles wide, 
colored a brownish brick-red by masses of mush- 
rooms. They had 3een mushroom forests before, 
and knew of the dangers they presented, but there 
was none so deadly as the plain before them. To 
right and left it stretched as far as the eye could 
see, but far away on its farther edge Burl caught 
a glimpse of flowing water- 
Over the plain itself a dull-red haze seemed to 
float. It was nothing more or less than a cloud 
of the deadly spores, dispersed and indefinite, con- 
stantly replenished by the freshly bursting red 
mushrooms. 

While the people stood and watched a dozen thick 
columns of dust roBe into the air from scattered 
points here and there upon the plain, settling slowly 
again, but leaving behind them enough of their 
finely divided substance to keep the thin red haze 
over the whole plain in its original, deadly state. 

Burl had seen single red mushrooms before, and 
even small thickets of two and three, but here was 
a plain of millions, literally millions upon millions 
of the malignant growths. Here was one fungoid 
forest through whose aisles no monster beetles 
stalked, and above whose shadowed depths no 
brightly colored butterflies fluttered in joyous 
abandon. There were no loud-voiced crickets sing- 
ing in its hiding-places, nor bodies of eagerly for- 
aging ants searching inquisitively for bits of food. 
It was a forest of death, still and silent, quiet and 
motionless save for the sullen eolumns of red dust 
that ever and again shot upward from the torn and 
ragged envelope of the bursting mushroom- 
Burl and his people watched in wonderment and 
dismay, but presently a high resolve came to Burl. 
The mushrooms never burst at night, and the deadly 
dust from a subsided cloud was not deadly in the 
morning. As a matter of fact the rain that fell 
every night made it no more than a sodden, thin 
film of reddish mud by daybreak, mud which dried 
and caked. 

Burl did not know what occurred, hut knew the 
result. At night or in early morning, the danger 
from the red mushrooms was slight. Therefore he 
would lead his people through the very jaws of 
death that night. He would lead them through the 
deadly aisles of this, the forest of malignant 
growths, the place of lurking annihilation. 

It was an act of desperation, and the resolution 
to carry it through left Burl in a state of mind that 
kept him from observing one thing that would have 
ended all the struggles of his tribe at once. Per- 
haps a quarter-mile from the edge of the red forest 
three or four giant cabbages grew, thrusting their 
colossal leaves upward toward the sky. 

And on the cabbages a dozen lazy slugs fed 
leisurely, ignoring completely the red haze that was 



never far from them and sometimes covered them. 
Burl saw them, but the oddity of their immunity 
from the effects of the red dust did not strike him. 
He was fighting to keep his resolution intact. If 
he had only realized the significance of what he saw, 
however — 

The slugs were covered with a thick soft fur. The 
tribespeople wore garments of that same material. 
The fur protected the slugs, and could have made 
the tribe immune to the deadly red dust if they had 
only known. The slugs breathed through a row of 
tiny holes upon their backs, as the mature insects 
breathed through holes upon the bottom of their 
abdomens, and the soft fur formed a mat of felt 
which arrested the fine particles of deadly dust, while 
allowing the pure air to pass through. It formed, 
in effect, a natural gas-mask which the tribesmen 
should have adopted, but which they did not dis- 
cover or invent. 

The remainder of that day they waited in a 
curious mixture of resolve and fear. The tribe was 
rapidly reaching a point where it would follow Burl 
over a thousand-foot cliff, and it needed some such 
blind confidence to make them prepare to go through 
the forest of the million deadly mushrooms. 

The waiting was a strain, but the actual journey 
was a nightmare. Burl knew that the toadstools 
did not burst of themselves during the night, but 
he knew that the beetle on which He had taken his 
involuntary ride had crashed against one in the 
darkness, and that the fatal dust had poured out. 
He warned his people to be cautious, and led them 
down the slope of the hill through the blackness. 

For hours they stumbled on in utter darkness, 
with the pungent, acrid odor of the red growths con- 
stantly in their nostrils. They put out their hands 
and touched the flabby, damp stalks of the mon- 
strous things. They 3tumbled and staggered against 
the leathery skins of the malignant fungoids. 

Death was all about them. At no time during 
all the dark hours of the night was there a moment 
when they could not reach out their hands and touch 
a fungus growth that might hurst at their touch 
and fill the air with poisonous dust, so that all of 
them would die in gasping, choking agony. 

And worst of all, before half an hour was past 
they had lost all sense of direction, so that they 
stumbled on blindly through the utter blackness, 
not knowing whether they were headed toward the 
river that might be their salvation or were wan- 
dering hopelessly deeper and deeper into the silent 
depths of the forest of strangled things. 

When day came again and the mushrooms sent 
their columns of fatal dust into the air would they 
gasp and fight for breath in the red haze that would 
float like a tenuous cloud above the forest? Would 
they breathe in flames of firellke torment and die 
slowly, or would the red dust be merciful and slay 
them quickly? 

They felt their way like blind folk, devoid of 
hope and curiously unafraid. Only their hearts were 
like heavy, cold weights in their breasts, and they 
shouldered aside the swollen sacs of the red mush- 
rooms with a singular apathy as they followed Burl 
slowly through the midst of death. 

Many times in their journeying they knew that 
dead creatures were near by — moths, perhaps, that 



THE RED DUST 



895 



had blundered into a distended growth which had 
burst upon the impact and killed the thing that had 
touched it. 

No busy insect scavengers ventured into this 
plain of silence to salvage the bodies, however. The 
red haze preserved the sanctuary of malignance in- 
violate. During the day no creature might hope to 
approach its red aisles and dust-carpeted clearings, 
and at night the alow-dropping rain fell only upon 
the rounded heads of the mushrooms. 

In all the space of the forest, only the little band 
of hopeless people, plodding on behind Burl in the 
velvet blackness, callously rubbed shoulders with 
death in the form of the red and glistening mush- 
rooms. Over all the dank expanse of the forest, the 
only sound was the dripping of the slow and sodden 
rainfull that began at nightfall and lasted until day 
came again. 

The sky began to grow faintly gray as the sun 
rose behind the hanks of overhanging clouds. Burl 
stopped short and uttered what was no more than 
a groan. He was in a little circular clearing, and the 
twisted, monstrous forms of the deadly mushrooms 
were all about. There was not yet enough light 
for colors to appear, and the hideous, almost obscene 
shapes of the loathsome growths on every side 
showed only as mocking, leering silhouettes as of 
malicious demons rejoicing at the coming doom of 
the gray-faced, huddled tribafolk. 

Burl stood still, drooping in discouragement upon 
his spear, the feathery moth's antennas bound upon 
his forehead shadowed darkly against the graying 
sky. Soon the mushrooms would begin to burst — 

Then, suddenly, he lifted his head, encourage- 
ment and delight upon his features. He had heard 
the ripple of running water. His followers looked 
at him with dawning hope. Without a word, Burl 
began to run, and they followed him more slowly. 
His voice came back to them in a shout of delight. 

Then they, too, broke into a jog-trot. In a 
moment they had emerged from the thick tangle of 
brownish-red stalks and were upon the banks of a 
wide and swiftly running river, the same river 
whose gleam Burl had caught the day before from 
the farther side of the mushroom forest. 

Once before Burl had floated down a river upon 
a mushroom raft. Then his journey had been in- 
voluntary and unlooked for. He had been carried 
far from his tribe and far from Saya, and his heart 
had been filled with desolation. 

Now he viewed the swiftly running current with 
eager delight. He cast his eyes up and down the 
bank. Here and there the river-bank rose in a low 
bluff, and thick shelf-growths stretched out above 
the water. 

Burl was busy in an instant, stabbing the hard 
growths with his spear and striving to wrench them 
free. The tribesmen stared at him, uncomprehend- 
ing, but at an order from him they did likewise. 

Soon a dozen thick masses of firm, light fungus 
lay upon the shore where it shelved gently into the 
water. Burl began to explain what they were to do, 
but one or two of the men dared remonstrate, say- 
ing humbly that they were afraid to part from him. 
If they might embark upon the same thing with 
him, they would be 3afe, but otherwise they were 
afraid. 



Burl cast an apprehensive glance at the sky. Bay 
was coming rapidly on. Soon the red mushrooms 
would begin to shoot their columns of deadly dust 
into the air. This was no time to pause and deliber- 
ate. Then Saya spoke softly. 

Burl listened, and made a mighty sacrifice. He 
took his gorgeous velvet cloak from his shoulders — 
it was made from the wing of a great moth — and 
tore it into a dozen long, irregular pieces, tearing 
it along the lineB of the sinews that reinforced it. 
He planted his spear upright in the largest piece 
of shelf-fungus and caused his followers to do like- 
wise, then fastened the strips of 3inew and velvet 
to his spear-shaft, and ordered them to do the same 
to the other spears. 

In a matter of minutes the dozen tiny rafts were 
bobbing on the water, clustered about the larger, 
central bit. Then, one by one, the tribefolk took 
their places, and Burl shoved off. 

The agglomeration of cranky, unseaworthy bits of 
shelf-fungus moved slowly out from the shore until 
the current caught it. Burl and Saya sat upon the 
central bit, with the other trustful but somewhat 
frightened pink-skinned people all about them. And, 
as they began to move between the mushroom-lined 
banks of the river and the mist of the night began 
to lift from its surface, far in the interior of the 
forest of the red fungoids a column of sullen red 
leaped into the air. The first of the malignant 
growths had east its cargo of poisonous dust into 
the still-humid atmosphere. 

The conelike column spread out and grew thin, 
but even after it had sunk into the earth, a reddish 
taint remained in the air about the place where 
it had been. The deadly red haze that hung all 
through the day over the red forest was in process 
of formation. 

But by that time the unstable fungus rafts were 
far down the river, bobbing and twirling in the 
current, with the wide-eyed people upon them gazing 
in wonderment at the shores as they glided by. The 
red mushrooms grew less numerous upon the banks. 
Other growths took their places. Molds and rusts 
covered the ground as grass had done in ages past. 
Mushrooms showed their creamy, rounded heads. 
Malformed things with swollen trunks and branches 
in strange mockery of the trees they had superseded 
made their appearance, and once the tribesmen saw 
the dark bulk of a hunting spider outlined for a 
moment upon the bank. 

All the long day they rode upon the current, 
while the insect life that had been absent in the 
neighborhood of the forest of death made its ap- 
pearance again. Bees once more droned overhead, 
and wasps and dragon-flies. Four-inch mosquitoes 
made their appearance, to be fought off by the tribe- 
folk with lusty blows, and glittering beetles and 
shining flies, whose bodies glittered with a metallic 
luster, buzzed and flew above the water. 

Huge butterflies once more were seen, dancing 
above the steaming, festering earth in an apparent 
ecstasy from the mere fact of existence, and all the 
thousand and one forms of insect life that flew and 
crawled, and swam and dived, showed themselves 
to the tribesmen on the raft. 

Water-beetles came lazily to the surface, to snap 
with sudden energy at mosquitoes busily laying 



896 



AMAZING STORIES 



their eggs in the nearly stagnant water by the 
river-banks. Bur] pointed out to Saya, with some 
excitement, their silver breast-plates that shone as 
they darted under the water again. And the shell- 
covered boats of a thousand caddis-worms floated in 
the eddies and back-waters of the stream. Water- 
hoatmen and whirligigs — almost alone among in- 
sects in not having shared in the general increase 
of size — danced upon the oily waves. 

The day wore on as the shores flowed by. The 
tribefolk ate of their burdens of mushroom and 
meat, and drank from the fresh water of the river. 
Then, when afternoon came, the character of the 
country about the stream changed. The banks fell 
away, and the current slackened. The shores be- 
came indefinite, and the river merged itself into a 
swamp, a vast swamp from which a continual mut- 
tering came which the tribesmen heard for a long 
time before they saw the swamp itself. 

The water seemed to turn dark, as black mud 
took the place of the clay that had formed its bed, 
and slowly, here and there, then more frequently, 
floating green things that were stationary, and did 
not move with the current, appeared. They were 
the leaves of water-lilies, that had remained with 
the giant cabbages and a very few other plants in 
the midst of a fungoid world. The green leaves 
were twelve feet across, and any one of them would 
have floated the whole of Burl's tribe. 

Presently they grew numerous so that the channel 
was made narrow, and the mushroom rafts passed 
between rows of the great leaves, with here and 
there a colossal, waxen blossom in which three men 
might have hidden and which exhaled an almost 
over-powering fragrance into the air. 

And the muttering that had been heard far away 
grew in volume to an intermittent, incredibly deep 
bass roar. It seemed to come from the banks on 
either side, and actually was the discordant croak- 
ing of the giant frogs, grown to eight feet in 
length, which lived and loved in the huge swamp, 
above which golden butterflies danced in ecstasy, 
and which the transcendency beautiful blossoms of 
the water-lilies filled with fragrance. 

The swamp was a place of riotous life. The 
green bodies of the colossal frogs — perched upon 
the banks in strange immobility and only opening 
their huge mouths to emit their thunderous croak- 
ings — the green bodies of the frogs blended queerly 
with the vivid color of the water-lily leaves. Dragon- 
flies fluttered in their swift and angular flight above 
the black and reeking mud. Greenbottles and blue- 
bottles and a hundred other species of flies buzzed 
busily in the misty air, now and then falling prey 
to the licking tongues of the frogs. 

Bees droned overhead in flight less preoccupied 
and worried than elsewhere flitting from blossom to 
blossom of the tremendous water-lilies, loading their 
crops with honey and the bristles of their legs 
with yellow pollen. 

Everywhere over the mushroom-covered world 
the air was never quite free from mist, and the 
steaming exhalations of the pools, but here in the 
swamps the atmosphere was so heavily laden with 
moisture that the bodies of the 1 tribefolk were 
covered with glistening droplets, while the wide, 
flat water-lily leaves glittered like platters of 



jewels from the "steam" that had condensed upon 
their upper surfaces. 

The air was full of shining bodies and iridescent 
wings. Myriads of tiny midges — no more than 
three or four inches across their wings — danced 
above the slow-flowing water. And butterflies 
of every imaginable shade and color, from the 
most delicate lavender to the most vivid carmine, 
danced and fluttered, alighting upon the white 
water-lilies to sip daintily of their nectar, skimming 
the surface of the water, enamored of their brightly 
tinted reflections. 

And the pink-skinned tribesfolk, floating through 
this fairyland on their mushroom rafts, gazed with 
wide eyes at the beauty about them, and drew in 
great breaths of the intoxicating fragrance of the 
great white flowers that floated like elfin boats»upon 
the dark water. 

CHAPTER V 

Out of Bondage 

THE mist was heavy and thick, and through it 
the flying creatures darted upon their innum- 
erable businesses, visible for an instant in all 
their colorful beauty, then melting slowly into in- 
deftniteness as they sped away. The tribefolk on 
the clustered rafts watched them as they darted 
overhead, and for hours the little squadron of fun- 
goid vessels floated slowly ' through the central 
channel of the marsh. 

The river had split into innumerable currents 
which meandered purposelessly through the glisten- 
ing black mud of the swamp, but after a long time 
they seemed to reassemble, and Burl could see what 
had caused the vast morass. 

Hills appeared on either side of the stream, which 
grew higher and steeper, as if the foothills of a 
mountain chain. Then Burl turned and peered be- 
fore him. 

Rising straight from the low hills, a wall of high 
mountains rose toward the sky, and the low-hanging 
clouds met their rugged flanks but half-way toward 
the peaks. To right and left the mountains melted 
into the tenuous haze, but ahead they were firm and 
stalwart, rising and losing their heights in the 
cloud-banks. 

They formed a rampart which might have 
guarded the edge of the world, and the river flowed 
more and more rapidly in a deeper and narrower 
current toward a cleft between two rugged giants 
that promised to swallow the water and all that 
might swim in its depths or float upon its surface. 

Tall, steep hills rose from either side of the swift 
current, their sides covered with flaking molds of 
an exotic shade of rose-pink, mingled here and there 
with lavender and purple. Rocks, not hidden be- 
neath a coating of fungus, protruded their angular 
heads from the hillsides. The river valley became 
a gorge, and then little more than a canon, with 
beetling sides that frowned down upon the swift 
current running beneath them. 

The small flotilla passed beneath an overhanging 
cliff, and then shot out to where the cliffsides drew 
apart and formed a deep amphitheater, whose top 
was hidden in the clouds. 



THE RED DUST 



897 



And across this open space, on cables all of five 
hundred feet long, a banded spider had flung its 
web. It was a monster of its tribe. Its belly was 
swollen to a diameter of no leas than two yards, and 
its outstretched legs would have touched eight 
points of a ten-yard circle. 

It was hanging motionless in the center of the 
colossal snare as the little group of tribefolk passed 
underneath, and they saw the broad bands of yellow 
and black and silver upon its abdomen. They 
shivered as their little crafts were swept below. 

Then they eame to a little valley, where yellow 
sand bordered the river and there was a level space 
of a hundred yards on either side before the steep 
sides of the mountains began their rise. Here the 
cluster of mushroom rafts were caught in a little 
eddy and drawn out of the swiftly flowing current. 
Soon there was a soft and yielding jar. The rafts 
had grounded. 

Led by Burl, the tribesmen waded ashore, wonder- 
ment and excitement in their hearts. Burl searched 
all about with hi3 eyes. Toadstools and mush- 
rooms, rusts and molds, even giant puff-balls grew 
in the little valley, but of the deadly red mushrooms 
he saw none. 

A single bee was buzzing slowly over the tangled 
thickets of fungoids, and the loud voice of a cricket 
came in a deafening burst of sound, reechoed from 
the hillsides, but save for the far-flung web of the 
banded spider a mile or more away, there was no 
sign of the deadly creatures that preyed upon men. 

Burl began to climb the hillside with his tribe- 
folk after him. For an hour they toiled upward, 
through confused masses of fungus of almost every 
species. Twice they stopped to seize upon edible 
fungi and break them into masses they could carry, 
and once they paused and made a wide detour 
around a thicket from which there came a stealthy 
rustling. 

Burl believed that the rustling was merely the 
sound of a moth or butterfly emerging from its 
chrysalis, but was unwilling to take any chances. 
He and his people circled the mushroom thicket 
and mounted higher. 

And at last, perhaps six or seven hundred feet 
above the level of the river, they came upon a little 
plateau, going back into a small pocket in the moun- 
tainside. Here they found many of the edible 
fungoids, and no less than a dozen of the giant cab- 
bages, on whose broad leaves many furry grubs 
were feeding steadily in placid contentment with 
themselves and all the world. 

A small stream bubbled up from a tiny basin 
and ran swiftly across theplateau, and there were 
dense thickets of toadstools in which the tribesmen 
might find secure hiding-places. The tribe would 
make itself a new home here, 
i That night they hid among inextricably tangled 
masses of mushrooms, anif-saw with amazement the 
multitude of creatures that ventured forth in the 
darkness. All the valley and the plateau were il- 
lumined by the shining beacons of huge but grace- 
ful fire-flies, who darted here and there in delight 
and — apparently — in security. 

Upon the earth below, also, many tiny lights 

glowed. The larva} of the fireflies crawled slowly 

. but happily over the fungus-covered mountainside, 



and great glow-worms clambered upon the shining 
tops of the toadstools and rested there, twin broad 
bands of bluish fire burning brightly within their 
translucent bodies. 

They were the females of the firefly race, which 
never attain to legs and wings, but crawl always 
upon the earth, merely enlarged creatures in the 
forms of their own larv^. Moths soared overhead 
with mighty, throbbing wing-beats, and all the 
world seemed a paradise through which no evil 
creatures roamed in search of prey. 

And a strange thing eame to pass. Soon after 
darkness fell upon the earth and the steady drip- 
drop of the rain began, a musical tinkling sound 
was heard which grew in volume, and became a 
deep-toned roar, which reechoed and reverberated 
from the opposite hillsides until it was like melodi- 
ous and long-continued thunder. For a long time 
the people were puzzled and a little afraid, but Burl 
took courage and investigated. , 

He emerged from the concealing thicket and 
peered cautiously about, seeing nothing. Then he 
dared move in the direction of the sound, and the 
gleam from a dozen fireflies showed him a sheet 
of water pouring over a vertical cliff to the river 
far below. 

The rainfall, gentle as it was, when gathered 
from all the broad expanse of the mountainside, 
made a river of its own, which had scoured out a 
bed, and poured down each night to plunge in a 
smother of spray and foam through six hundred 
feet of empty space to the swiftly flowing river 
in the center of the valley. It was this sound that 
had puzzled the tribefolk, and this sound that 
lulled them to sleep when Burl at last eame back 
to allay their fears. 

The next day they explored their new territory 
with a boldness of which they would not have been 
capable a month before. They found a single great 
trap-door in the earth, sure sign of the burrow of 
a monster spider, and Burl resolved that before 
many days the spider would be dealt with. He 
told his tribesmen so, and they nodded their heads 
solemnly instead of shrinking back in terror as they 
would have done not long since. 

The tribe was rapidly becoming a group of men, 
capable of taking the aggressive. They needed Burl's 
rash leadership, and for many generations they 
would need bold leaders, but they were infinitely 
superior to the timid, rabbit-like creatures they had 
been. They bore spears, and they had used them. 
They had seen danger, and had blindly followed 
Burl through the forest of .strangled things instead 
of fleeing weakly from the peril. 

They wore soft, yellow fur about their middles, 
taken from the bodies of giant slugs they had 
slain. They had eaten much meat, and preferred 
its succulent taste to the insipid savor of the mush- 
rooms that had once been their steady diet. They 
knew the exhilaration of brave adventure — though 
they had been forced into adventure by Burl — and 
they were far more worthy descendants of their 
ancestors than those ancestors had known for many 
thousand years. 

The exploration of their new domain yielded 
many wonders and a few advantages. The tribe- 
folk found that the nearest ant-city was miles away, 



AMAZING STORIES 



and that the small insects would trouble them but 
rarely. (The nightly rush of water down the slop- 
ing aides of the mountain made it undesirable for 
the site of an ant colony.) 

And best of all, back in the little pocket in the 
mountainside, they found old and disused cells of 
hunting wasps. The walls of the pocket were made 
of soft sandstone with alternate layers of clay, and 
the wasps had found digging easy. 

There were a dozen or more burrows, the shaft 
of each some four feet in diameter and going hack 
into the cliff for nearly thirty feet, where they 
branched out into a number of cells. Each of the 
celis had once held a grub which had grown fat 
and large upon its hoard of paralyzed crickets, and 
then had broken away to the outer world to emerge 
as a full-grown wasp. 

Now, however, the laboriously tunneled caverns 
would furnish a hiding-place for the tribe of men, 
a far more secure hiding-place than the center of 
the mushroom thickets. And, furthermore, a hid- 
ing-place which, because more permanent, would 
gradually become a possession for which the men 
would fight. 

It is a curious thing that the advancement of a 
people from a state of savagery and continual war- 
fare to civilization and continual peace is not made 
by the elimination of the causes of strife, but by 
the addition of new objects and ideals, in defense of 
which that same people will offer battle. 

A single chrysalis was found securely anchored 
to the underside of a rock-shelf, and Burl detached 
it with great labor and carried it into one of the 
burrows, though the task was one that was almost 
beyond his strength. He desired the butterfly that 
would emerge for his own use. 

He preempted, too, a solitary burrow a little dis- 
tant from the others, and made preparations for an 
event that was destined to make his plans wiser 
and more far-reaching than before. 

Hi3 followers were equally busy with their var- 
ious burrows, gathering stores of soft growth for 
their couches, and later — at Burl's suggestion — 
even carrying within the dark caverns the radiant 
heads of the luminous mushrooms to furnish il- 
lumination. The light, would be dim, and after 
the mushroom had partly dried it would cease, but 
for a people utterly ignorant of fire it was far 
from a bad plan. 

Burl was very happy for that time. His people 
looked upon him as a savior, and obeyed his least 
order without question. He was growing to repose 
some measure of trust in them, too, as men who 
began to have some glimmerings of the new-found 
courage that had come to him, and which he had 
striven hard to implant in their breasts. 

The tribe had been a formless gathering of 
people. There were six or seven men and as many 
women, and naturally families had come into being 
— sometimes after fierce and absurd fights among 
the men — but the families were not the sharply 
distinct agreements they would have been in a tribe 
of higher development. 

The marriage wa3 but an agreement, terminable 
at any time, and the men had but little of the feel- 
ing of parenthood, though the women had all the 
fierce maternal instinct of the insects about them. 



These burrows in which the tribefolk were mak- 
ing their homes would put an end to the casual 
nature of the marriage bonds. They were homes 
in the making — damp and humid burrows without 
fire or heat, but homes, nevertheless. The family 
may come before the home, in the development of 
mankind, but it invariably exists when the home 
has been made. 

The tribe had been upon the plateau for nearly 
a week when Burl found that stirrings and smug- 
glings were going on within the huge cocoon he 
had laid close beside the burrow he had chosen for 
his own. He cast aside all other work, and waited 
patiently for the thing he knew was about to hap- 
pen. He squatted on his haunches beside the huge, 
oblong cylinder, his spear in his hand, waiting 
patiently. From time to time he nibbled at a bit 
of edible mushroom. 

Burl had acquired many new traits, among which 
a little foresight was most prominent, but he had 
never conquered the habit of feeling hungry at any 
and every time that food was near at hand. He 
had to wait. He had food. Therefore, he ate. 

The sound of scrapings came from the closed 
cocoon, caked upon its outer side with dirt and 
mold. The scraping and scratching continued, and 
presently a tiny hole showed, which rapidly en- 
larged. Tiny jaws and a dry, glazed skin became 
visible, the skin looking as if it had been varnished 
with many coats of brown shellac. Then a mal- 
formed head forced its way through and stopped. 

All motion ceased for a matter of perhaps half an 
hour, and then the strange, blind head seemed to 
become distended, to be swelling, A crack ap- 
peared along its upper part, which lengthened and 
grew wide. And then a second head appeared from 
within the first. 

This head was soft and downy, and a slender 
proboscis was coiled beneath its lower edge like 
the trunk of one of the elephants that had been 
extinct for many thousand years. Soft scales and 
fine hairs alternated to cover it, and two immense, 
many-faceted eyes gazed mildly at the world on 
which it was looking for the first time. The color 
of the whole was purest milky-white. 

Slowly and painfully, assisting itself by slender, 
colorless legs that seemed strangely feeble and 
trembling, a butterfly crawled from the cocoon. Its 
wings were folded and lifeless, without substance 
or color, but the body was a perfect white. The 
butterfly moved a little distance from its cocoon and 
slowly unfurled it3 wing3. With the action, life 
seemed to be pumped into them from some hidden 
spring in the insect's body. The slender antenna? 
spread out and wavered gently in the warm air. 
The wings were becoming broad expanses of snowy 
velvet, 

A trace of eagerness seemed to come into the 
butterfly's actions. Somewhere there in the valley 
sweet food and joyous companions awaited it. 
Fluttering above the fungoids of the hillsides, 
surely there was a mate with whom the joys of 
love were to be shared, surely upon those gigantic 
patches of green, half hidden in the haze, there 
would be laid tiny golden eggs that in time would 
hatch into small, fat grubs. 

Strength came to the butterfly's limba. Its 



THE RED DUST 



wings were spread and closed with a new assurance. 
It spread them once more, and raised them to make 
the first flight of this new existence in a marvelous 
world, full of delights and adventures — Burl struck 
home with his spear. 

The delicate limbs struggled in agony, the wings 
fluttered helplessly, and in a little while the butter- 
fly lay still upon the fungus -carpeted earth, and 
Burl leaned over to strip away the great wings of 
snow-white velvet, to sever the long and slender 
antenna?, and then to call his tribesmen and bid 
them share in the food he had for them. 

And there was a feast that afternoon. The 
tribesmen sat about the white carcass, cracking 
open the delicate limbs for the meat within them, 
and Burl made sure that Saya secured the choicest 
bits. The tribesmen were happy. Then one of the 
children of the tribe stretched a hand aloft and 
pointed up the mountainside. 

Coming slowly down the slanting earth was a 
long, narrow file of living animals. For a time the 
file seemed to be but one creature, but Burl's keen 
eyes soon saw that there were many. They were 
caterpillars, each one perhaps ten feet long, each 
with a tiny black head armed with sharp jaws, and 
with dull-red fur upon their backs. The rear of 
the procession was lost in the mist of the low- 
hanging cloud-banks that covered the mountainside 
some two thousand feet above the plateau, but the 
foremost was no more than three hundred yards 
away. 

Slowly and solemnly the procession came on, the 
black head of the second touching the rear of the 
first, and the head of the third touching the rear 
of the second. In faultless alinement, without in- 
tervals, they moved steadily down the slanting side 
of the mountain. 

Save the first, they seemed absorbed in maintain- 
ing their perfect formation, but the leader con- 
stantly rose upon his hinder half and waved the 
fore part of his body in the air, first to the right 
and then to the left, as if searching out the path 
he would follow. 

The tribefolk watched in amazement mingled with 
terror. Only Burl was calm. He had never seen 
a slug that meant danger to man, and he reasoned 
that these were at any rate moving Blowly so that 
they could be distanced by the fleeter-footed human 
beings, but he also meant to be cautious. 

The slow march kept on. The rear of the proces- 
sion of caterpillars emerged from the cloud-bank, 
and Burl saw that a shining white line was left 
behind them. No less than eighty great caterpillars 
clad in white and dingy red were solemnly moving 
down the mountainside, leaving a path of shining 
silk behind them. Head to tail, in single file, they 
had no eyes or ear3 for anything but their proces- 
sion. 

The leader reached the plateau, and turned. He 
came to the cluster of giant cabbages, and ignored 
them. He came to a thicket of mushrooms, and 
passed through it, followed by his devoted band. 
Then he came to an open space where the earth was 
soft and sandy, where sandstone had weathered and 
made a great heap of easily moved earth. 

The leading caterpillar halted, and began to bur- 
row experimentally in the ground. The result 



pleased him, and some signal seemed to pass along 
the eight-hundred-foot line of creatures. The 
leader began to dig with feet and jaws, working 
furiously to cover himself completely with the soft 
earth. Those immediately behind him abandoned 
their formation, and pressed forward in haste. 
Those still farther back moved more hurriedly. 

All, when they reached the spot selected by the 
leader, abandoned any attempt to keep to their 
line, and hastened to find an unoccupied spot in 
the open space in which to bury themselves. 

For perhaps half an hour the clearing was the 
scene of intense activity, incredible activity. Huge, 
ten-foot bodies burrowed desperately in the whitish 
fearth, digging frantically to cover themselves. 

After the half-hour, however, the last of the 
caterpillars had vanished. Only an occasional 
movement of the earth from the struggle of a 
buried creature to bury itself still deeper, and the 
freshly turned surface showed that beneath the 
clearing on the plateau eighty great slugs were 
preparing themselves, for the sleep of metamor- 
phosis. The piled-up earth and the broad, white 
band of silk, leading back up the hillside until it 
became lost in the cloudB, alone remained to tell of 
the visitation. 

The tribesmen had watched in amazement, They 
had never seen these creatures before, but they 
knew, of course, why they had entombed themselves. 
Had they known what the scientists of thirty thou- 
sand years before had written in weighty and dull 
books, they would have deduced from the appear- 
ance of the processionary caterpillars — or pine- 
caterpillars — that somewhere above the banks of 
clouds there were growing trees and sunlight, that 
a moon shone down, and stars twinkled from the 
blue vault of a cloudless sky. 

But the tribesmen did not know. They only 
knew that there, beneath the soft earth, was a 
mighty store of food for them when they cared 
to dig for it, that their provisions for many months 
were secure, and that Bur], their leader, was a great 
and mighty man for having led them to this land of 
safety and plenty. 

Burl read their emotions in their eyes, but better 
than their amazement and wonderment was a glance 
that had nothing whatever to do with his leadership 
of the tribe. And then Burl rose, and took the two 
snowy-white velvet cloaks from the wings of the 
white butterfly. One of them he flung about his 
own shoulders, and the other he flung about Saya. 
And then those two stood up before the wide-eyed 
tribesmen, and Burl spoke: 

"This is my mate, and my food is her food, and 
her wrath is my wrath. My burrow is her burrow, 
and her sorrow, my sorrow. 

"Men whom I have led to thi3 land of plenty, 
hear me. As ye obey my words, see to it that the 
words of Saya are obeyed likewise, for my spear 
will loose the life from any man who angers her. 
Know that as I am great beyond all other men, so 
Saya is great beyond all other women, for I say 
it, and it is so." 

And he drew Saya toward him, trembling slightly, 

and put his arm about her waist before all the tribe, 

and the tribesmen muttered in acquiescent whispers 

(Continued on page 968) 



MANWHO COULD VANISH 



Author of "Beyond the Pole" and "Through the Crater's Kim." 




form floating in a 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



901 




PROLOGUE 

N the third day of last August the pub- 
lic was astounded by a story which 
appeared in every newspaper in the 
country. Extra editions of even the 
most staid and conservative papers ap- 
peared on the streets shortly after noon and, in 
screaming headlines, announced: 

"HARTWELL BUILDING DISAPPEARS. 
TWENTY STORY STRUCTURE VANISHES 
IN BROAD DAYLIGHT AND REAPPEARS. 
MARVELOUS AND INEXPLICABLE ILLU- 
SION WITNESSED BY CROWDS. BELIEVED 
TO BE A DEMONSTRATION BY'SOME MAS- 
TER HYPNOTIST SEEKING PUBLICITY." 
It is not necessary to quote the stories that oc- 
cupied entire pages of the press, for while all agreed 
in the main essentials, no two were the same and 
all contained glaring errors and discrepancies. 
Moreover, the events must still be fresh in the 
minds of my readers. Suffice to say that each and 
every account stated that the new Hartwell Build- 
ing, in process of construction on Nineteenth Street, 
had suddenly vanished from sight during the 
noon hour; that hundreds of citizens had packed 
the thoroughfare; that the police and fire depart- 
ments had been called out, and that, for a space of 
Several minutes, only a vacant lot and an immense 
excavation had been visible where the building had 
stood. Then, while the crowd looked on, the struc- 
ture had reappeared as suddenly and mysteriously 
as it had vanished. 

The story was so utterly incredible that, at first, 
many persons thought it 

merely a canard or some mm i iiiiwmh i ■■■iiiiiMnn 
advertising or publicity 
scheme. But as, during 
the following days, the 
press was filled with ac- 
counts of the phenomenon 
as related by eyewit- 
nesses, and as the police 
and fire department offi- 
cials confirmed the re- 
ports, and there could be 
Do question regarding the 
authenticity of the story, 
innumerable theories and 
explanations were sug- 
gested, and so for days 
the crowds thronged the 
streets near the Hartwell BBHWWiWW B 
Building and stood, gaz- 
ing expectantly, in the hopes that it might repeat ita 
mysterious behavior. 

The concensus of opinion was that the astounding 
occurrence had been brought about by some hypnot- 
ist or fakir who, as the East Indian magicians are 
supposed to do, had hypnotised the onlookers, and 
that the disappearance of the building had been 
wholly an illusion. "No doubt," said the "Times," 
"the public will soon be informed that Signor So- 
and-So, the world's greatest hypnotist and illusion- 
ist, will appear at a certain theatre, with a further 
announcement of the fact that the Signor deluded 



hundreds of persons, and by his mesmeric powers, 
caused them to believe that a twenty-story build- 
ing could vanish into thin air." 

But as time went on and no one came forward to 
claim the doubtful honor of being able to accomplish 
such a feat, by hypnotism or otherwise, the mystery 
deepened, and every conceivable theory — both na- 
tural and supernatural, was advanced to explain the 
wholly unaccountable phenomenon. . 

Up to the present time the truth has never been 
known, and only two men in the world are aware of 
the actual facta and the real solution of the mystery. 
One of these is Doctor Lemuel Unsinn, Professor 
of Physics at Stanforth University, and my life- 
time friend and college chum; the other is myself. 
As the time has now passed when any harm can 
come from giving the true story to the world, and 
as the explanation is even more incredible and re- 
markable than any of the imaginary solutions put 
forth, we have agreed that the public should bo 
made acquainted with the facts. Indeed, the 
authentic story would have been published some 
months ago had it not been essential to make cer- 
tain arrangements to safeguard the secret, and 
whose making required much more time than had 
been anticipated. 

In order to make clear just how the astounding 
occurrence took place, and to enable my readers to 
thoroughly understand my true if incredible story, 
it will be necessary to begin at the beginning and to 
recount every detail of the events which led to the 
final results. To many readers much of this matter 
will, no doubt, prove rather dry, and, if I were writ- 
ing fiction, I would omit all those portions of the 
tale which deal with the 



TF you have read "Beyond the Pole", by A. Hyatt Verrill, 
you -will no doubt be interested in the present story by 
the same author. We have no hesitancy in recommending 
it, and at the same lime staling that vie believe it is one of 
the greatest stories on man-made invisibility vjhich has 
ever appeared. In these latter days of science it would be 
rash to say thai invisibility can not be produced. Already 
Dr. Jules Stean, of Alsace-Lorraine, has produced partial 
invisibility by injecting certain liquids into animal tissue, 
which make the animal practically transparent when it is 
viewed in a certain light. The full details of Ms experi- 
ments were published in the February, 1921, issue of 
SCIENCE AND INVENTION. No experiments have been 
made on human beings as yet, but there is no question that 
sooner or later the problem of invisibility vnU be solved. 
Just what might happen taken the secret is found is vjcll 
related by the author of this story, which you will read not 
only with great interest but with m 



scientific side and the pre- 
liminaries. But both Dr. 
Unsinn and myself feel 
that to omit such matters 
would be a great mistake, 
and that as the story is 
of as much interest and 
importance to the scienti- 
fic world as to the layman, 
nothing should be left un- 
told. Moreover, we feel 
that unless such matters 
were included my story 
would be considered aa 
purely fictitious. And at 
any rate the reader is at 

liberty to skip such por- 

^DHnunnni tions of my narrative as 

the appreciative reader 

may find to be lacking in real and genuine interest. 

CHAPTER I 
Doctor Unsinn Propounds Some Theories) 

FT really began when I was visiting my old frien3 
and college chum, Dr. Lemuel Unsinn, soon) 
after his return from an international confer* 
enee of scientists. 

He had been telling me of the various new dis> 
coveries which had been announced by his fellows, 
and mentioned certain phenomena of light ravEt 



r 



902 



AMAZING STORIES 



which, hitherto unseen, had now been brought with- 
in the scope of human vision. Although I could 
not, aa a layman, see the importance of the dis- 
covery, my friend was most enthusiastic about the 
matter, and, among other statements, declared that 
it might yet be possible to render objects invisible. 

I laughed. "That is utterly impossible," I de- 
clared. 

"Nothing within the realms of Science is impos- 
sible," he retorted. 

"Perhaps not," I admitted, "but there are many 
things which are so highly improbable that to all in- 
tents and purposes they are beyond possibility or 
reason." 

"Utter nonsense!" he ejaculated. "Ignorance, 
lack of imagination, pig-headed conservatism. 
Every advance made by Science has been declared 
improbable or impossible, or both, until its feasibil- 
ity has been proven. Railways, steamships, the 
telegraph and telephone, radio, airplanes, — all have 
been laughed at and declared impossibilities until 
they became actualities. Science," he went on, as- 
suming his lecture-room manner, and looking at me 
over the rims of his glasses, "Science does not ac- 
knowledge the existence of the words impossible and 
improbable'. What seems a mere dream today may 
become an every-day affair tomorrow. The 
scientist " 

"Oh, all right," I laughed. "Cut out the lecture. 
Granting that nothing i3 beyond Science, as rep- 
resented by my old friend, Lemuel Unsran, how 
do you propose going about it?" 

"I presume you refer to the matter of rendering 
visible objects invisible," he smiled, leaning back in 
his chair and placing the tips of his fingers to- 
gether. 

I nodded. 

"Hmm, I hardly care to divulge all my ideas, even 
to such an old friend as yourself," he chuckled. 
"But I am willing to suggest lines along which such 
investigations might be conducted. You state that 
it is preposterous to consider making visible, solid 
matter invisible. Is it any more preposterous than 
to- make inaudible sounds audible, invisible things 
visible, or audible sounds inaudible?" 

I shook my head. "No, I'd say one's as impos- 
sible as the other." 

Lemuel grinned. "Which shows your monu- 
mental ignorance," he exclaimed. "My dear boy," 
he continued, "those feats are all accomplished facts 
and are so familiar to you that you do not realize 
they exist. The inaudible waves transmitted by 
radio are rendered audible in the receiving set; the 
audible waves which enter the microphone of the 
transmitting station are sent inaudibly through the 
ether; and heat, which is invisible under certain 
conditions is plainly visible under other conditions 
which occur every day." 

"Yes," I granted rather grudgingly, "I'll admit 
the matter of sounds, but I'd like to know when and 
how heat can be seen. That ia, unless you refer 
to the wavy effect seen above a pavement or sand 
on a hot day." 

"No, there you have air, usually invisible, rend- 
ered visible by its motion," replied my friend. "But 
you have undoubtedly seen red-hot or white-hot 



metal. And there you have heat made visible. 
Heat, sound, light and probably scent also, are all 
caused by vibratory waves. Waves varying in 
length from the shortest X-rays and Gamma rays to 
the longest recorded waves; waves varying from 
less than a billionth part of a meter to over one- 
hundred-and-fifty thousand meters in length. Un- 
fortunately, however, the human system is not 
designed or attuned to register or recognize more 
than an infinitely small proportion of these vi- 
bratory waves. Our eyes can only record those 
which range between violet ' and red, but our 
nerve b and ears can detect others which are 
invisible. For example, there are the heat waves 
which are too long for .£3 ii. see. But if, by 
heating an object, we decrease the length of 
the waves until they come within the limits of our 
vision we see the heat waves as red. And by still 
further heating the object the hotter waves ap- 
pear to us as violet, white or yellow; white being, 
as you know, merely a mixture or combination of 
the various light waves. In other words, my dear 
boy, our eyes, our nerves, our ears, and in all prob- 
ability our noses as well, are much like radio re- 
ceiving sets. We can 'tune in' waves of light, sound, 
heat and scent within certain limits, and, like radio 
receiving sets, we often fail to 'tune out' interfer- 
ences. Many sounds are far too high or too low 
for the human ear to detect, just as many light 
waves are too short or too long for us to see." 

"All extremely interesting and educational." I 
said, "But what bearing does all this have on the 
matter under discussion — the rendering of various 
objects — any object I believe you said, — invisible?" 

"Let me reply by asking you a question," 3miled 
my friend. "Why are objects — human beings, 
houses, trees, anything we see, — visible? Merely 
because they reflect light," he continued without 
waiting for my answer. "Very well, then. We 
see an object because it reflects light; we see 
colors on that object because it has properties which 
cause it to absorb certain light rays and to reflect 
others — if red to us, it absorbs the violet, indigo, 
blue, green, yellow and orange ray3. If it 
appears white it reflects all the rays. If black, it 
absorbs them. In other words we do not actually 
see the object at all. We merely see the light wave3 
reflected from the object. And if means can be 
found to cause the object to absorb the light rays — " 

"You'd have a black object instead of a colored 
one," I laughed. 

"Exactly," agreed my friend quite unperturbed. 
"Provided the absorption was imperfect," he added. 
"But," he continued, "if the means were such as to 
cause perfect absorption, in other words to allow 
the light waves to pass through the object, then it 
would become invisible, just as clear glass is in- 
visible, even though glass reflects certain waves of 
light which cannot be detected by the human eye." 

I chuckled. The idea of transforming opaque ob- 
jects to transparent objects seemed highly amusing. 
"Go to it," I laughed, "Why not begin with the 
ladies? Their clothes are pretty nearly trans- 
parent now." „ 

"If you're trying to be facetious there's no use 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



903 



in my attempting to explain my ideas and theories," 
commented Dr. Unsinn in an injured tone. 

"I wasn't laughing at your theories," I assured 
him. "And I'm really interested, even if I don't see 
what you're getting at." 

"If your sense of logic and your knowledge of 
science were as highly developed as your sense of 
humor, and your knowledge of women's garments, 
you might more readily grasp what I am 'getting at' 
as you put it," he said dryly. "However," he con- 
tinued, "I had no intention of conveying the idea 
that I believed visible objects could be rendered 
invisible by such means. But if, by altering the 
frequency or lengths of light waves reflected from 
an object, we could render such waves too short 
or too long for the human eye to register, then the 
object would become wholly invisible." 

By this time I was really interested. My friend's 
arguments were, I knew, sound. If the frequency 
of one form of vibratory wave could be altered; if 
an oscillating wave could be changed to a direct 
wave or vice versa, if the inaudible radio waves 
could be made audible by the simplest of instru- 
ments, wa3 there any scientific reason why light 
waves ordinarily visible might not be made in- 
visible 1 

"And the man who succeeds in accomplishing such 
a feat will control the world," declared Dr. Unsinn 
interrupting nay thoughts. "Imagine it! Think 
for a moment what it would mean I He could com- 
mand anything, everything. He could amass mil- 
lions, billions if he wished. He could control the 
destinies of nations! No treaties, no plots, no 
business deals could be secret. He could go any- 
where, unknown, unsuspected, unseen. Why," he 
exclaimed, as he sprang from his chair and began 
excitedly pacing the room. "Think what it would 
mean to a nation! Armies, battleships, invisible! 
And " 

"Think what it would mean to the crooks," I 
broke in. "Better not delve too far, Old Man. You 
might succeed and your secret might leak out. 
Well, I must be going. Good iuck to you in your 
experiments. And" — with a laugh, "Let's hope 
that the next time I see you I shan't see you at all." 

CHAPTER II 
An Amazing Demonstration 

A FEW days after the foregoing conversation 
with my old friend, Doctor Unsinn, import- 
ant business unexpectedly ealled me to 
South America. 

Although his words often occurred to me on the 
long journey south, yet I gave them little serious 
consideration, for I knew that Lemuel, like so many 
scientific men, was prone to theorize and to argue 
most plausibly and convincingly in support of some 
theory, even if he had no real faith in it. And, amid 
new scenes and new friends, and with matters of 
much -more pressing importance to occupy my at- 
tention, all thoughts of Dr. Unsinn's weird ideas 
were completely driven from my mind. 

Not until several months later, when I was home- 
ward hound, did I again think of our last con- 



versation. I had, to be sure, dropped him a post- 
card now and then, but I had received no reply and 
did not expect any. Lemuel was never one to write, 
and he considered it a waste of time to carry on a 
purposeless correspondence with anyone, although 
he would fill page after page with facts, figures and 
theories in letters to other scientists. Now, how- 
ever, as I recalled our conversation, I found myself 
wondering if he had actually attempted to carry his 
theory to a test. Of course the idea was ridiculously 
bizarre and unattainable and yet, I felt Bure that Dr. 
Unsinn had actually been in earnest and really be- 
lieved that it was scientifically possible to produce 
invisibility in solid matter. 

And the more I mentally reviewed his words and 
analyzed his statements, the more I felt that he 
might be right, at least theoretically. After all, wa3 
such a feat any more remarkable than the fact 
that the ship's wireless operator was talking and 
listening to people thousands of miles distant and 
separated from our ship by countless leagues of sea 
and land? And yet the idea of any material object 
being invisible seemed so far-fetched and super- 
natural that I could not bring myself to 'believe that 
Lemuel would ever attempt to experiment along 
such lines. Nevertheless, I had thought so much on 
the subject that, at the first opportunity after my 
arrival, and reaching my apartment, I called Dr. 
Unsinn, by phone and, after the usual greetings, 
asked how he was succeeding in his black art. Per- 
haps he felt slightly piqued at my tone or my words, 
but instantly there was a change in his voice and 
he replied, rather shortly, that it was evident that 
I had not improved in my attitude towards science, 
but that, as an old chum and friend, he would be 
glad to have me call whenever I found it convenient. 

Just why my curiosity had been aroused I can- 
not say, hut curious I was nevertheless and within 
the hour I was at Lemuel's door. His Filipino ser- 
vant Miguel, answered the bell and greeted me with 
a welcoming grin on hi3 usually emotionless face. 

"The Senor Doctor is in the laboratory," he an- 
nounced as I entered. "He say you will please to 
await him in the library. He will arrive in one little 
moment." 

I was somewhat surprised for, as a rule, I was 
welcome to enter Lemuel's holy of holies whenever 
I called, and never before had I been asked to await 
his pleasure like a perfect stranger. But no doubt I 
thought, he was busy on some delicate experiment 
and did not wish to be interrupted. Entering the 
library I turned to a table littered with magazines 
and scientific reports and rather idly glanced 
through them. A sound, like the creaking of a foot- 
step on a loose board caused me to turn, but the 
door was open, the hallway was in plain view and 
no one was in sight. Once more I resumed my per- 
usal of the periodicals and was becoming a bit in- 
terested in an article I ran across, when I wag 
startled by a low chuckle. Instantly I wheeled 
about, surprised that I had not heard my friend'3 
approach, only to find the room empty. Then, as I 
stood, rather foolishly gaping I fear, and puzzled 
to understand how my ears had deceived me, I fair- 
ly jumped. Out of the obviously empty room came 
Dr. Unsinn's unmistakable voice. 



904 



AMAZING STORIES 



"Sorry to have kept you waiting," it said, "You're 
looking exceedingly well after your trip." 

For an instant a strange creepy sensation swept 
over me. Then I realized that this must be one of 
my friend's practical jokes. No doubt he had in- 
stalled some sort of telephone or loud speaker ar- 
rangement in the apartment and was testing it out 
on me. 

As nearly as I could judge, the words had come 
from the farther corner of the room where there 
was a large, deeply- upholstered chair. Taking a 
step nearer, I peered into the corner, trying to dis- 
cover the hidden instrument. And as I gazed at the 
chair I rubbed my eyes. and wondered if I were tak- 
ing leave of my senses. 

Slightly above the back of the chair and sus- 
pended in mid-air were a pair of spectacles. On the 
left side and a short distance below was a round 
metal disc and also seemingly floating in the at- 
mosphere, were a number of buttons, a gold watch 
and chain, two small ornamental silver buckles, 
some cuff links and a large signet ring. Just below 
these and suspended a few inches above the chair 
seat were several silver coins, while just above the 
floor four rows of small metal rings hung without 
any support whatsoever. 

Even while I gazed, dumbfounded, utterly at a 
loss to account for this strange hallucination, that 
ghostly chuckle again issued from the corner, and 
Lsaw the various objects sway, the coins shift their 
position and the ring move towards the spectacles 
which seemed to follow it, as though drawn by a 
magnet, as it again descended to its former position. 
Then, once again, the uncanny voice spoke. 

"My dear boy, your expression is most remark- 
able," it said. "You really should see yourself. But 
it is most gratifying to me for it proves my test is 
a success. If I remember correctly, you remarked, 
when I last saw you, that you hoped the next time 
you saw me you would not: see me at all. Well, your 
wish is granted, you are gazing — or rather I might 
say, gaping, at me without seeing me. But I do 
not wonder you are amazed and also incredulous — 
don't deny it, I can see you think this some hoax. 
However — " 

I had been gazing, gaping; jaw dropped, mouth 
open, eyes fairly popping, as the voice spoke, and 
fascinated, I saw the watch, the discs and the money 
slowly rise upward and come towards me. The next 
instant I fairly shrieked and leaped back. An un- 
seen ghostly hand had gripped my shoulder! A 
hearty peal of laughter rang through the apartment 
as, shaken, almost terror stricken, I shrank back 
against the old-fashioned mantel, 

"Yes, my experiment is a complete success," an- 
nounced the disembodied voice, "but there is no need 
to carry the test further. You see my 'black art' as 
you call it has worked, and the impossible has been 
made possible. But I feel you will be more at ease 
if I am visible. No doubt it will take time to ac- 
custom yourself to the phenomenon." 

Hardly had the last word been issued when the 
watch, the discs and the coins vanished, and Dr. 
Unsinn stood before me, as solid, a3 substantial 
and as natural as ever. 

I collapsed. It was almost as great a shock to my 



nerves to see my friend materialize from the air as 
it had been to hear his voice, to feel his grip when 
he had been invisible, yes, invisible, for no longer 
could I doubt that the scientist had succeeded in 
making the impossible possible. 

"I think I have answered your query of this 
morning," exclaimed Dr. Unsinn triumphantly, as 
he seated himself in his favorite chair. "I felt 
quite sure of ray.suecess even before you arrived," 
he continued, "I could not be sure, however, for, 
strangely enough, — and quite surprising and as yet 
somewhat inexplicable to me, I can see myself in a 
mirror even when invisible to others. But I tried 
it to a slight extent on Miguel, although I dared 
not put the fellow to a thorough test, — too super- 
stitious and excitable you know. Might have died 
of fright or have bolted, if I had spoken, or if he 
had noticed anything such as my watch or buttons. 
Ah, you noticed such objects did you not?" 

By this time I had regained a bit of my compos- 
ure and enough breath to speak. "I'll say I did," I 
replied. "But why allow such objects to remain 
visible?" 

"Hmm, that is my great difficulty," replied Lem- 
uel regretfully. "It is obvious that the same treat- 
ment will not serve for all objects. I have learned 
how to render any organic substance invisible, but, 
as yet, I have not discovered how to accomplish the 
result with inorganic matter. My body, my cloth- 
ing, my shoes, yes, even objects of wood are, by my 
method, easily rendered invisible, but metals— my 
watch, my suspender buttons, the coins in my pock- 
et and the eyelets for my shoe strings resist, so 
far, all my efforts." 

"But how," I interrupted, "do you do it?" 

Dr. Unsinn smiled knowingly. "That is a secret 
I do not care to divulge," he replied. "But," he 
went on, "in a general way it is along the lines I 
suggested during our last conversation on the sub- 
ject,-— by altering the frequency of light waves so 
that they become invisible to the human eye. As 
you, my friend, are deplorably ignorant of higher 
physics, I may perhaps better explain the process 
by comparing it with certain phenomena of radio 
with which you may be more or less familiar. Do 
you know the meaning of the term 'heterodyne?' " 

I nodded. 

"Good," continued Lemuel. "Then I can state 
that by my process I send out certain vibratory 
waves from my apparatus, and these, striking the 
light rays, reflect them baek with a frequency 
which renders them invisible. In other words, the 
light rays which would, normally, strike a solid 
object, and, being reflected therefrom, would cause 
that object to become visible, are prevented from 
striking that object by my method, but strike an 
armor of an envelope of outgoing vibratory waves. 
Is that clear?" 

"Perfectly," I lied blithely, not in the least un- 
derstanding the scientific side of the explanation, 
but deeply interested nevertheless. "But," I asked, 
"I don't understand why some objects remain vis- 
ible while others vanish, and I didn't notice any ap- 
paratus for bringing on your astounding invisi- 
bility." 

"I do not myself fully understand why organic 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



905 



oDjects should respond to my treatment and in- 
organic objects should resist it," admitted my 
friend. "But it is probably due to the fact that in- 
organic materials do not throw off my vibratory 
waves at the same frequency as organic materials. 
But I will solve the problem; I must solve it! As 
for your other query, the appliance which I em- 
ploy is very compact and becomes invisible together 
with myself. At first the apparatus was cumber- 
some and clumsy, but I have now perfected it and 
have it so readily and perfectly under control that 
it is even more simple than tuning-in on a small 
radio receiving set. Indeed, the results may he 
brought about slowly and gradually, as I will de- 
monstrate." 

As Dr. Unsinn stood before me a strange, incred- 
ibly weird change came over him. A thin haze 
seemed to envelop his body, and as I stared fascin- 
ated, the haze seemed slowly to clear away and to 
my indescribable amazement I saw the curtained 
doorway leading into the room whose portiere and 
parts of whose frame appeared through my friend's 
body and head. If ever there was a ghost Lemuel 
was one. And then, as if snuffed out, Lemuel com- 
pletely vanished and only his spectacles, the fra- 
ternity button on his lapel, his watch and chain, his 
cuff-links, hi3 belt and arm-garter buckles, his ring, 
watch and chain and the other metaliic objects of 
his apparel remained to assure my reeling senses 
that Dr. Unsinn still 3tood before me. 

I cannot begin to describe the sensation of thus 
seeing my companion vanish before my eyes, but it 
was nothing compared to the creepy, uncanny 
nerve-racking sensation which followed, as Lemuel's 
characteristic chuckle issued from the transparent* 
air and he again spoke. 

"For Heaven's sake I" I cried, "Don't do that. I'll 
have a nervous collapse if that disembodied voice 
of yours keeps on." 

The voice laughed, but the next instant my friend 
was before me as substantial as ever. 

"You'll get accustomed to the sensation," he de- 
clared, "but — " 

"Never," I broke in. "No normal person could 
ever get accustomed to seeing a man vanish be- 
fore his eyes or to hearing a voice talking from thin 
air." 

"Hmm, I had rather expected something of this 
sort," admitted Lemuel. "No doubt it is a bit un- 
nerving but you must accustom yourself to the 
phenomenon. Now, if you will follow my directions 
and, using a duplicate instrument, will render your- 
self invisible — " 

"I will not!" I declared. "I have no desire to try 
the experiment. But even if I did I fail to see how 
that would render your disappearance any less un- 
canny." 

"It is my belief," replied Dr. Unsinn, "that if 
you were treated by my waves I would still be vis- 
ible to you and you to me. I am, as I informed you, 
quite visible to myself when I look in a mirror. 
This I assume is due to some effect which my ap- 
paratus exercises upon the optic nerves, thus en- 
abling the eye to register the light-waves even 
when their frequency is accelerated. I am most 



anxious to test the matter and you will confer a 
great favor by acceding to my wishes." 

"Not a bit of it," I declared. "You can monkey 
with such things all you wish, but I'm perfectly 
satisfied to remain visible." 

Lemuel shook his head sadly. "You're a conserv- 
ative imbecile," he informed me. "I had counted 
on your accompanying me, as I go about, in order 
to note the effect upon the public, and it would be 
most desirable that you should also be invisible." 

"Look here," I said. "I know you can vanish; I 
know it's all a perfectly natural feat, but it's too 
devilishly creepy and uncanny for my nerves. And 
if you're going to keep on being snuffed out and 
talking from an invisible mouth I'll leave you to 
your own devices and not come near your place." 

Dr. Unsinn grinned. ,r You forget that you 
couidn't prevent me from coming to see you." he 
reminded me., "I could enter your apartment un- 
seen and unsuspected. I might be seated on one of 
your chairs or lying on a couch in the same room 
with you and you'd never suspect it." 

"If I didn't see your confounded watch and other 
metaliic articles," I assented. "But with all your 
darned scientific ardor I know you're not one to 
butt-in where you're not wanted, — even for the sake 
of an experiment." 

"But all joking aside," said my friend, "I am. 
sorry that your nerves should be upset by my de- 
monstration. However, there is, I think, a means of 
overcoming all your objections and yet helping me 
with my most valuable and interesting experiments. 
I have, in fact, devised a little instrument which 
will enable you to see me even when I am invisible 
to others." 

Rising, he opened a cabinet, and turning, handed 
me a small rectangular box slightly larger than ? 
cigarette case. To one end of the box a fine braidec 
cord was attached with the other end terminating 
in a pair of metal-rimmed, slightly tinted, eye- 
glasses. 

"If you will place the detector case in your pocket 
and adjust the glasses on your nose, we will try an 
interesting test," announced Dr. Unsinn. 

"Look here," I said. "Is this some darned trick to 
make me invisible?" 

"I assure you it is not," he declared. "But if I 
am not vastly mistaken it will prevent me from be- 
coming invisible to you." 

Somewhat hesitatingly, and without the least 
faith in the apparently simple device, I slipped the 
case in my breast pocket and placed the glasses on 
my nose. As far as I could see all objects remained 
the same as before, though everything, including 
Lemuel's face, took on a peculiar pinkish tint, due, 
I supposed, to the color of the glasses. 

"I presume you have no difficulty in seeing the 
various objects about the room, including myself," 
said my friend. 

"Not a bit," I assured him. 

"Then, if you will kindly press the lever on the 
case we wi!I proceed." 

Examining the case, I noticed a small lever or 
arm which fitted snuggly into a small groove on one 
edge of the affair. 



906 



AMAZING STORIES 



"Lift the lever and move it forward — toward the 
cord, as far as it will go," aaid my friend. 

A slight click followed by an almost inaudible 
whistling sound issued from the case as I obeyed 
his instructions. But, as far as I could see, these 
were no other results. Lemuel still sat in his chair, 
his legs crossed, hia elbows on the chair-arms, the 
tips of hia fingers together, and his mild blue eyes 
looking over the tops of his glasses. 

"The confounded contraption's a dud," I ex- 
claimed, "everything's just the same." 

"Precisely," my friend agreed. "But just re- 
move the glasses from your eyes for a moment." 

As I complied with his request I uttered a cry of 
utter amazement. Dr. Unsinn was absolutely in- 
visible! 

"Now replace the glasses," said his disembodied 
voice. 

Hardly knowing what to expect, absolutely 
dumbfounded, I again placed the glasses before my 
eyes and there sat my friend as before. I could not 
believe it. I could not believe that this "now you 
see him and now you don't" effect was produced by 
the glasses. No, I felt sure, it was a trick on Lem- 
uel's part. He must manage to vanish and to re- 
appear coincidently with my donning or removing 
the lenses. But he assured me, — quite heatedly and 
convincingly, — that he had remained in the invis- 
ible state throughout fine experiment, and, more- 
over, he was so evidently highly elated at the suc- 
cess of his invention that at last I was forced to 
believe that the magic glasses actually rendered the 
inviBible visible. But my brain was now in a com- 
plete chaos. My friend's power to render himself 
invisible, the fact that certain objects remained 
visible, the effect of the glasses rendering him vis- 
ible to me while still invisible to ordinary eyes, 
were all unquestionable facta; but they were so 
weird, uncanny and downright supernatural, that 
I felt as if in a confused, preposterous dream, and 
I half expected to wake up at any moment. 

"It's splendid," exclaimed Lemuel, interrupting 
my chaotic thoughts. "Even if I cannot overcome 
your absurd and unreasonable objections to becom- 
ing invisible it now matters little." 

"Look here!" I ejaculated. "Just what are you 
planning to do? Are you going out to amass the 
millions you spoke of, to control the world? I'll ad- 
mit there's no reason why you should not succeed, — 
possessing your secret, nothing is impossible of at- 
tainment, but if you plan taking me along you're 
mistaken. I'm not invisible and I don't intend to 
be, and I can easily foresee where I'd be the goat 
for any confounded ghostly acta you perpetrated." 

Dr. Unsinn laughed heartily. "My dear boy!" he 
cried, controlling his merriment. "You appear to 
forget that I am a scientist and a respected member 
of the community with a reputation to uphold. I 
have not the least desire nor intention to overstep 
the bounds of honesty, law, or proper behavior, even 
if invisible. If I were so minded I could, as you 
know, help myself to the world's treasures, could 
control the destinies of nations, could in fact place 
myself beyond the power of man or the law. But 
my sole idea is to use my discovery for the benefit 
of mankind, to perfect it and give it to the world, as 



so many great discoveries have been given. We men 
of science are never materialists. — " 

"You're an idiot!" I exclaimed. "Benefit of man- 
kind ! Give it to the world ! Why, if you gave your 
discovery to the world, — if you gave the secret to 
anyone,- — it would be a curse to mankind; you'd be 
destroying law and order and the world!" 

"Hmm, perhaps there is something in that," ad- 
mitted Lemuel regretfully. "But at any rate, I must 
discover how to treat inorganic substances before 
any very extensive experiments can be conducted. 
It would hardly do for a crowd to see a watch and 
buttons wandering about without visible attach- 
ment or reason." 

"You might leave your watch behind, and use 
bone or fibre buttons," I suggested. 

"But, my dear man," objected my friend, "unless 
I can render all substances invisible I shall feel that 
my efforts have been in vain." 

"And I sincerely hope you fail," I informed him. 
"I don't see what good it will do for the rest of the 
world, and if it leaks out, Heaven help us." 

"Juafwhat thousands of conservative hide-bound 
persons have said of every great discovery of the 
past," exclaimed Lemuel, as I rose to take my leave. 

CHAPTER III 
Dr. Unsinn Perfects His Invention 

AS I walked towards my apartment, my mind 
was, of course, filled with thoughts of my 
friend's amazing discovery. And, among 
other matters, it came to me, as a rather curious 
and amusing fact, that Dr. Unsinn, who had dwelt 
so enthusiastically upon the material possibilities 
of invisibility, when he first discussed the matter, 
was now far more interested in proving his 
scientific theories than in profiting by his discovery. 
It was typical of the man, and is, I believe, of most 
scientists. But a more disturbing thought was that 
my friend was deplorably absent-minded, — a common 
trait of scientists also, especially when preoccupied 
with some experiment, and, being so inherently 
honest and frank himself, he was too prone to as- 
sume that his fellow-beings were the same. In this 
lay, so I feared, a very grave danger. I remem- 
bered occasions in the past when, suddenly side- 
tracked by some new lead, he had completely for- 
gotten formulae or calculations which had enabled 
him to succeed in some experiment, and had never 
been able to duplicate the results. Might he not, in 
endeavoring to perfect some feature of his own dis- 
covery, forget some important detail and find him- 
self unable to restore himself to visible form? It 
waa in fact this chance that had caused me to refuse 
to test his device upon myself. I could see where it 
might be moat entertaining and advantageous to 
become invisible temporarily, but I had no deBire 
to remain in that condition indefinitely, and any 
failure of Lemuel's device, any miscalculation, any 
accident or any sudden illness on his part might 
leave me forever incapable of resuming my visible 
form. The risk to be sure might be small, but it 
was far too great for me to take. And finally, there 
was the chance that Dr. Unsinn might, in his ardor 
and enthusiasm, divulge his secret. Unquestion- 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



907 



ably he would wish to announce his discovery to his 
fellow scientists; if he did so some one would make 
the fact public and then, as I had said to Lemuel, 
Heaven help mankind. My head swam and I fairly 
trembled at thought of what would occur should my 
friend's secret fall into the hands of unprincipled 
men. Law, society, governments would be power- 
less. Possessing the power to become invisible, 
crooks could defy the world. They could loot banks, 
state treasuries, mints and all other sources of 
hoarded millions, unseen, unhampered and leaving 
no traces of their identity. Murder, robbery, rapine, 
any and all crimes could be committed without fear 
of detection or punishment. Even if caught una- 
wares and thrown into prison an invisible man could 
walk out without being seen. No walls could hold 
him, no court try him, no punishment be dealt him. 
And even if the secret were known to all, it would 
make little difference, unless, as Lemuel had seemed 
to think, a person invisible himself could see others 
when under the effect of the apparatus. The next in- 
stant I laughed out so loudly that passers-by turned 
and stared at me. What a fool I had been I How 
ridiculous my worry over any such possibility! I 
had forgotten about the marvelous glasses! My 
friend's secret might become public property and 
yet be harmless, even in the hands of the most des- 
perate criminals. Just as there is an antidote for 
every poison, so Lemuel's magic glasses would safe- 
guard the world from any evil that might result 
from his discovery. Moreover, there was always the 
chance that he would be unable to discover a means 
of rendering inorganic matter invisible, and if so, 
his invention would be of little value either to hon- 
est or dishonest men. At thought of the weird situ- 
ations that might result, I chuckled. I could imag- 
ine a gunman, himself invisible, holding up some 
citizen, and I could visualize the amazed expression 
of the victim as he saw a revolver suspended in 
mid-air and pointing at him, and heard a disem- 
bodied voice ordering him to throw up his hands. 
And it was amusing to picture motor cars, appar- 
ently empty, threading their way through traffic 
and stopping and starting at the signals of a visible 
whistle blown by an invisible traffic officer. Yes, 
one's imagination could run riot and nothing imag- 
ined could equal the reality if my friend's, invention 
came into general use. And, no doubt, I had greatly 
overestimated the dangers and the undesirable fea- 
tures of the discovery. In all probability the in- 
vention, once it became known, would create little 
more excitement or wonder than had followed the 
invention of the telephone, the radio or any other 
epochal thing. People would take it aa a matter of 
course and no greater harm would come of it than 
had resulted from the discovery of the steam en- 
gine, electricity, or any other revolutionary inven- 
tion, all of which had been looked upon as inimical 
to the world and to mankind when they had been 
first announced. 

At any rate, I could not afford to worry over 
Lemuel's affairs even if his marvelous achievement 
continually occupied my thoughts. 

For several days I heard nothing from Dr. Un- 
sinn, and I was far too busy with my own work to 
visit him. No doubt he was deep in his experiments 



and I felt sure he would notify me when he had per- 
fected anything new. And in this I was not mis- 
taken. Answering my telephone, I was greeted by' 
Lemuel's voice. 

"I've got it!" he cried. "I've conquered inorganic 
matter. Everything is perfected! Can you come 
over at once?" 

As on my previous visit, Miguel admitted me, 
and, as before, he requested me to wait for my 
friend in the library. But this time I was prepared 
and had no intention of being either frightened or 
amazed at anything Dr. Unsinn might spring on 
me. At least, I thought I was; but I had un- 
derestimated my friend's abilities and the astound- 
ing possibilities of his perfected discovery. 

Standing before the old-fashioned fireplace, and 
listening intently for the slightest sound which 
might betray the approach of an invisible being, 
I peered about the room half expecting to see Lem- 
uel materialize or to hear his bodiless voice speak- 
ing to me. 

As I did so a thin fog or mist seemed to cloud my 
vision. I can best describe the sensation as similar 
to a "blind headache" from which I had at times 
suffered. I could distinguish every object in the 
library, but everything appeared to he slightly out 
of focus. I rubbed my eyes and stared again. In 
the wall opposite where I stood a luminous spot 
appeared; other bright spots seemed to take form 
on the ceiling and the floor and on the other walls 
Without doubt, I thought, I was in for a terrific 
headache, for such bright, luminous spots always 
appeared before my eyes when such an attack was 
coming on. And then a strange, a marvelous, an 
absolutely astounding and terrifying change took 
place. Floor, ceiling, walls ; every object within the 
room melted away.. It was exactly the effect that I 
had seen when a film or a lantern-slide is melted by 
the heat of the projection machine. One instant I 
was standing before the fireplace in Dr. Unsinn's 
library; the next instant I was in the centre of a 
blank, standing in a void. To the right, where a 
wall and two windows had been, was the broad, 
tree-shaded street with its electric lights and 
shadowy houses on the further side. Above 
me was space; below me intense, fathomless 
blackness. And yet, my feet rested on solid matter 
and as, too amazed and terrified even to cry out, I 
felt gropingly with my outstretched hands, my 
fingers touched the mantel and a nearby table with 
magazines that rustled at my touch. And then, in- 
stantly, I knew what had occurred. Incredible, ut- 
terly unbelievable as it seemed, I knew that Lemuel 
by his uncanny, his almost supernatural invention 
had amused himself and had demonstrated his 
powers by rendering the entire apartment invis- 
ible! 

My fright gave way to absolute wonder. It was 
impossible but true, and feeling confident that I 
was right, I rather hesitatingly took a step forward. 
Never shall I forget the sensation. Surrounded by 
nothingness, as far as my vision went, suspended 
in mid-air, yet I was walking as securely, as firmly 
and on as solid a floor as ever. Reassured, I turned 
towards the street that stretched before me and 
far beneath me. As if in a dream I walked for- 



908 



AMAZING STORIES 



ward with arms extended, and, the next moment, 
banged with uncomfortable force against a solid 
wall. And at my involuntary expletive, Lemuel's 
hearty laughter came from behind me, and I stag- 
gered back as an invisible hand slapped my shoul- 
ders. 

"It works!" exclaimed the voice. "It's the most 
wonderful discovery ever made by man !" 

"And the moat damnable way to wreck a man's 
nerves," I blurted out, as my hands came into con- 
tact with an invisible chair and I dropped weakly 
into it. 

"Sorry I had to frighten you a bit," said my 
friend's voice. "But I wanted to test the matter 
thoroughly." 

"If you want to keep my friendship, you'll turn 
off your confounded machine and get things back 
to normal," I replied testily. 

"Oh, all right," agreed Lemuel, "but look here, 
old man, can't you wait a minute? I—" 

"I'm looking here, there and everywhere," I ex- 
claimed. "And there's nothing to see and I've had 
enough of this." 

"Dash it all, then I was wrong after all," cried 
Dr. Unsinn. "I felt sure that while subject to the 
treatment one person could see another, and that 
■ while invisible a person could see objects invisible 
to others. Well, after all, it doesn't matter so 
much," 

"You get things back to visibility again before 
you start lecturing," I commanded.. "It's worse 
than a nightmare," 

Before I had finished speaking I found myself 
once more amid the familiar surroundings of my 
friend's library with Lemuel seated, grinning tri- 
umphantly, in his favorite chair. 

"You didn't give me enough time to test my 
theories thoroughly," he complained. "I wished to 
try the glasses again." 

"You tested it enough to suit me and more," I 
said. "I'll take the glasses on your say-so. In fact, 
from now on, I'll believe anything you say in re- 
gard to your discovery or invention or black magic 
or whatever it is. If you say you can make the en- 
tire universe invisible I'll not argue with you. But 
let me tell you it's lucky you didn't live a century 
or so ago. You'd be burned for a witch before 

"You forget that it would be a difficult undertak- 
ing to burn an invisible being," he reminded me. 
"And just think how scared those witch-baiters 
would have been, if their stake and fire had sud- 
denly vanished from before their eyes." 

"And I'll wager that a lot of people will wish you 
had been executed before you made your devilish 
discovery," I told him. 

"Not a bit of it!" he declared. "The world will 
welcome it and will acclaim me the greatest inven- 
tor and greatest benefactor of the human race." 

"See here," I cried, all my old fears again pos- 
sessing me, "Won't you listen to reason and com- 
mon sense? You're so carried away with your 
success that you haven't stopped to think what it 
would mean, if you. let the world know of your in- 
vention. No, don't interrupt me, I've worried over 
thiB ever since I was here last, and I'm going to 



have it out with you here and now. I'll admit you've 
succeeded better than I expected or hoped, for if 
you had failed to make inorganic substances in- 
visible your invention might not have been so 
dangerous. As it is, the possibilities for destroying 
life, property, society and mankind are too tre- 
mendous to even think of. Can't you see what it 
would mean if crooks got hold of it? Can't you see 
what it would mean if it fell into the hands of 
Bolshevists, or revolutionists or governments? Why 
man, you'd upset the world, destroy civilization, 
wreak unspeakable woe and misery and terror." 

"Piffle!" ejaculated Lemuel, "if everything and 
everybody was invisible the status of the world 
would remain unchanged. How could a criminal 
attack an invisible victim? Instead of facilitating 
crime it would deter crime. Instead of bringing 
on wars and destruction it would prevent such 
things. How could an army fight an invisible foe? 
How could a navy attack invisible ships ? And in- 
visible police and officers of law and order could 
apprehend criminals much more readily. Besides, 
you forget about my glasses. If the public or any 
part of the public possessed these, nothing would 
be invisible to the wearers." 

"Idiotic reasoning," I declared. "Suppose some- 
one stole or learned your secret? Suppose the agent 
of a hostile nation got hold of it? Or suppose some 
gang of criminals secured the invention by fair 
means or foul? Is it likely that they would let the 
world know of the glasses which counteract the 
process? No, every moment that you possess the 
apparatus for working your devilish trick, you're 
threatening your fellow men and civilization with 
annihilation. If you wish to benefit the world, de- 
stroy every calculation, every bit"' of apparatus, 
every trace of what you've done and never divulge a 
word of it." 

"You're an old scare-head," aaifl Lemuel, though 
I could see that my words had had their effect. 
"And," he continued, "I have no intention of follow- 
ing your advice. There is not the slightest danger 
of my discovery being found out unless you or I 
divulge it. .1 shall not, — for the present at least, 
and I know you will not. Moreover, even if it were 
known, no one could work it. The procedure is 
known only to myself." 

"Anything one man has done another can re- 
peat," I reminded him. 

"Possibly," he admitted, "but to proceed with my 
statement. I am free to grant that eertain things 
you have said are not without foundation. I had, 
in the beginning, expected to make my invention 
public, for of course it is impossible to patent it. 
Anyone could pirate the patent, and, availing him- 
self of his knowledge could render himself invisible 
and thus beyond reach of the law. But I may decide 
not to give my discovery to the world at large. It 
all depends upon future experiments and tests. And, 
if you really feel as you say in regard to it, you'll 
help me to carry out my tests. If, in my judgment 
and in yours, these experiments prove the invention 
actually a peril to society then, I assure you, it will 
never be revealed to the public. But, if, on the 
other hand, you, as well as myself, are convinced 
that the discovery will be beneficial rather than 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



909 



inimical, I shall let the world know the secret." 

"Hmm, well I suppose that's fair enough," I as- 
sented. "But before I agree I want to know what 
these experiments are which you have in mind." 

"Certainly," said Lemuel. "I intend to go about 
while invisible, accompanied by you equipped with 
the glasses, and from personal observation deter- 
mine just what will or might *happen, and whether 
the power to become invisible would be beneficial or 
otherwise." 

"I don't see anything to object to in that," I as- 
sured him, "and I'll agree to help you, provided 
you agree not to do anything which might result 
in my being held responsible. Remember, J will be 
visible and you. will not, and I'd hardly care to 
stand up in a police court and claim that an invisible 
companion was responsible for certain acts of which 
I was accused. No, Lemuel, I have no desire to end 
my days in an insane asylum." 

"But, my dear boy," chuckled my friend, "that 
would be a splendid test, and of course I could al- 
ways materialize at the last moment. Just imagine 
the effect on a policeman or a magistrate!" 

"Yes, just imagine it," I replied drily. "And un- 
less you're willing to agree to my terms you can 
imagine your experiments without ray aid." 

"Yon take me far too seriously," exclaimed Lem- 
uel. "I have no intention of overstepping the 
bounds of the law, and I shall certainly so conduct 
my experiments that no blame can be attached to 
you. But," he added regretfully, "it would be much 
better if you also would submit to the effect of my 
device." 

"Well, I won't and that's an end to that," I de- 
clared positively. "And," I continued, "there's an- 
other matter. You'll have to promise me that you 
will not try the experiment of making things in- 
visible by wholesale, — no vanishing of rooms, build- 
ings or other structures while occupied. A terrible 
panic might and most certainly would result. And 
this includes trolley cars, railway trains, moving 
vehicles and similar things. A panic is the easiest 
thing in the world to start and the hardest to stop." 

"I promise," assented my friend, "but I shall most 
assuredly try my invention on unoccupied struc- 
tures and other objects." 

"I don't care what you try it on provided you do 
not endanger life or property," I told him. 

"Then we'll start our experiment tomorrow," ex- 
claimed Lemuel. "We'll start from your apartment. 
If convenient to you I'll call at ten tomorrow morn- 



CHAPTER IV 
Dr. Unsinn's Experiment 

I DO not know exactly what object Dr. Unsinn 
had in view, or what he hoped to accomplish by 
his "experiment." Certainly he had demon- 
strated his discovery and had proved it successful 
by his tests on myself. Possibly he felt that human 
sight might vary, that some persons might find him 
invisible while to others he was visible, or again, he 
may have wished merely to gratify his own vanity, 
and enjoy the sensation of moving unseen among 
his fellows. He could not, in fact, clearly explain 



to me what he expected or why he was so insistent 
upon having me accompany him, when, as we had 
agreed, we set out from ray apartment. But in 
view of the events which followed I feel sure that 
it was fate or predestination that led him to under- 
take his experiment. 

Wearing the marvelous glasses, in order that I 
might not lose sight of my companion, who had 
rendered himself invisible, I hailed an approaching 
trolley car. But habit is a strong and persistent 
thing, and the human mind is greatly governed by 
the impressions it receives through the eyes, and, 
at the very outset of our venture I learned this to my 
chagrin. Boarding the car with Lemuel at my 
heels, I handed the conductor a dime and he re- 
turned a nickel in change. I was on the point of 
handing it back, and the word "two" was on the 
tip of my tongue when a nudge from Lemuel's el- 
bow brought me to my senses. As niy friend was 
plainly visible to me I had completely forgotten that 
he was invisible to the conductor, and I mentally 
'.vowed to watch my step more closely in the future. 
There were few passengers in the car and my com- 
panion seated himself in one corner while I took 
the seat beside him. And presently habit once 
again came to the fore and came near to getting 
me into a most embarrassing situation. Quite for- 
getting, momentarily, that my friend was invisible, 
I spoke to him, and he, quite in his ordinary man- 
ner, replied. In fact we were carrying on quite an 
animated conversation when I was suddenly brought 
to a realization of what we were doing by the be- 
havior of the other passengers. Everyone was gaz- 
ing at me. Some curiously, others half pityingly, ag 
if thinking me either mad or intoxicated, while still 
others were grinning and thoroughly enjoying the 
spectacle of a man carrying on a conversation with 
himself. Even the conductor had entered the car 
and was staring at me, a strangely puzzled expres- 
sion on his face, as if undecided whether I was a 
dangerous lunatic or a common drunk. Fortunately, 
my presence of mind came to my rescue, and, flush- 
ing, but forcing a smile, I turned to an intelligent 
appearing gentleman near me. "I must apologize for 
my absent-mindedness," I stammered. "I was merely 
practising a bit of ventriloquism for my act, and 
inadvertently spoke aloud." 

This lame explanation appeared to satisfy every- 
one. The passengers resumed their former occupa- 
tions of staring vacantly out of the windows, read- 
ing their papers, or gazing absently at the advertis- 
ing placards within the car, while the conductor, 
evidently relieved, betook himself again to the rear 
platform. 

By now, however, the experiment was getting on 
my nerves. I had feared that my friend's absent- 
mindedness might lead him into trouble and yet, 
by my own thoughtless actions, I had twice within a 
few moments barely escaped getting into deep water. 
And the fact that I could not speak my mind to my 
invisible companion, and that I had pledged myself 
to see the experiment through, only added to my 
irritation. As, inwardly fuming, I resolved to 1 keep 
my mind constantly alert to avoid further em- 
barrassment, the car came to a stop and a stout, 
pompous and overdressed middle-aged woman en- 



910 



AMAZING STORIES 



tered. As the car started with a jerk she lurched 
forward, and, before I realized her intention, 
she plumped herself into the apparently vacant seat 
beside me. A grunt from my invisible friend, and a 
terrific abriek from the stout female instantly fol- 
lowed, and, as if bounced from a spring, she sprang 
up, her eyes blazing, her face white with indigna- 
tion and fairly shouting a torrent of abuse as she 
shook her beringed fist in my face, 

"Brute! Disreputable old rake!" she screamed, 
"I'll have you jailed! I'll have you imprisoned!" 

Instantly the car was in an uproar. Passengers 
crowded forward; necks were craned; everyone 
talked at once, and the conductor pushed his burly 
figure between the irate female and myself. 

"Hey, what's the game?" he demanded. "What 
did this guy do to yer, lady?" 

"He obtruded himself beneath me, — the unspeak- 
able fiend!" she shrieked. "He endeavored to em- 
brace me and pinched me." 

"I did nothing of the sort," I declared, fairly 
shouting to make myself beard. "I—" 

"Tell it to the judge," interrupted the conductor, 
stepping towards me. 

Fortunately for me the gentleman to whom I had 
offered my ventriloquistie explanation, now inter- 
vened in my behalf. 

"The lady is mistaken," he declared, rising and 
restraining the conductor. "I was observing her 
and this gentleman closely. She seated herself in 
the vacant seat and this gentleman did not move. 
Possibly — " 

"Yeah, the old guy's right," chimed in a greasy 
mechanic opposite. "He never done nothin'. The 
dame's nutty. What guy'd want her to squat in hi3 
lap?" 

Instantly the woman's wrath was turned on this 
new victim, but before violence could be done the 
conductor intervened. "Hey, quit this roughhouse 
stuff," he ordered. "If youse want to fight take it 
outside. Guess you're in wrong, lady. Sit down, 
or get off and call a cop." 

Still glaring, and voicing her opinions of every- 
one, and especially of me, she again descended 
ponderously to Lemuel's seat. 

An involuntary exclamation escaped my lips, but 
it was uncalled for. During the excitement, Dr. 
Unsinn had risen and had slipped unseen to the 
rear platform where he was beckoning to me wild- 
ly. 

Only too glad to escape, I rose and joined him and, 
as the car came to a halt, we stepped off. 

"Confound the woman !" he exclaimed the moment 
we were alone. "She very nearly fractured my 
thighs. You would have gotten us into a nice fix 
if she had. How could a doctor set an invisible 
bone? And the apparatus in my pocket might have 
been ruined so that I could not have regained my 
visible form. You'll have to be more careful in 
future. Why didn't you stop her or warn me?" 

For an instant I waa too amazed at hi3 outburst 
to speak. So he, too, was blaming me for all the 
trouble. Thi3 was too much. 

"Look here!" I cried, "I've had enough of this. 
You're as well able to take care of yourself while 
invisible as when visible. If you're going to de- 



pend on me to keep you out of trouble I'll quit 
and you can go ahead with your damnable experi- 
ment alone. And you talk about getting into 
trouble! You're safe and I'm the goat every time. 
Think it's fun for me to be called names and 
threatened with arrest? I'd look nice trying to ex- 
plain matters to the police or the judge, wouldn't 
I?" 

Lemuel chuckled. "Come, come," he exclaimed, 
placing his hand on my arm. "I didn't mean to 
have you take it that way, Old Man. But we'll both 
have to be a trifle more circumspect in future. And, 
really, it was most amusing. Now I propose tak- 
ing a taxi hereafter. I am convinced that trolley 
cars are not suitable conveyances for me in con- 
ducting my tests. But the test was most conclusive 
after all." 

By now the humor of the incident had outweighed 
the more serious side of the affair in my mind, and 
I laughed heartily with Lemuel as we waited on the 
corner for an empty taxi to approach. 

Within the vehicle we could converse freely, for 
the noise of the motor and the surrounding traffic 
prevented the driver from hearing our voices. 

Lemuel, elated at the success of his experiments, 
wa3 now becoming reckless and suggested that it 
would be most interesting and amusing to render 
the taxi and ourselves invisible. But I sternly for- 
bade it. "You're an idiot." I declared, "we could be 
maimed or killed even if we were invisible. Don't 
you realize we'd be in a wreck within ten seconds? 
If you make any more such crazy suggestions I'll 
see that you're placed in a lunatic asylum." 

"Easier said than done," he reminded me, "but, 
all joking aside, I must try the effect on something 
more than myself. Ah, I have it! Stop the cab, 
will you?" 

As he had been speaking we had passed a huge 
office building in course of erection, and, as I paid 
the taxi driver, Lemuel was gazing appraisingly at 
the towering structure of steel and stone. 

"A splendid opportunity!" he cried enthusiastic- 
ally. "Possibly my pocket apparatus may not have 
sufficient power but — " 

"Confound you!" I cried. "Didn't you promise 
me you wouldn't try your invention on any struc- 
ture?" 

"I did not," he declared decisively. "I merely 
agreed not to render invisible any structure con- 
taining human occupants. This building is vacant. 
A strike is in progress and the place is deserted." 

"Well, you promised not to do anything which 
would cause a panic or trouble," I persisted. 

"And I intend to keep my promise," he replied. 
"I shall defer my experiment until the noon hour 
when the streets will be practically deserted, and 
there can be no panic. And I fail to see how it 
can cause any trouble." 

All arguments whieh I could offer were in vain, 
and, I must confess, I was rather fascinated by 
my friend's suggestion. To cause a towering steel 
and stone structure to vanish would, indeed, be a 
feat, — jf it could be done, and I was rather anxious 
to find what the effect on the public would be. But 
as it was still nearly two hours before noon we 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



911 



resumed our way, ■with Lemuel seeking new oppor- 
tunities to test his discovery on the public. 

The sidewalks were thronged with shoppers, and 
presently, as we pushed our way through the crowd, 
a terrified shriek pierced the hum and noises of the 
busy street, as my companion, either accidently or 
thoughtlessly, bumped into a passing woman. As 
she collapsed in a faint I sprang forward; but Dr. 
"Unainn was before me. Completely forgetting that 
he was invisible, he stooped down, raised the vic- 
tim's head and then, lifting her in his arms, started 
for a nearby drug store. Instantly pandemonium 
broke loose. Screams, shouts, frightened cries rose 
from the crowd which had quickly gathered, and 
awed, unable to believe their eyes, men, women and 
children shoved, crowded, and fought to make way 
for the woman's form floating in air through their 
midst. For a moment my heart seemed to cease 
beating; All my fears appeared about to be justi- 
fied. In an instant there would be a panic with 
crushed and trampled bodies and all the attendant 
horrors. But for once the impending catastrophe 
was stayed by the very panic and terror of the 
crowd. So intent were the people on the incredible 
Bight which had terrified them that they stood as 
if turned to stone, petrified with amazement and 
fear. 

And then a still more incredible thing happened. 
The woman's body suddenly vanished! Lemuel had 
bethought himself, and, undoubtedly confused at 
the condition's he had created, had tried to improve 
matters by rendering his victim invisible. And the 
seemingly supernatural occurrences had been wit- 
nessed by myself as well as by the crowd, for, in 
the meI6e the glasses had been wrenched from my 
nose and were hanging, dangling, useless and tem- 
porarily forgotten from my breast pocket. And as 
the woman's form vanished a strange sound, half 
sigh, half groan, arose from the gaping multitude. 
Before hundreds of eyes the impossible had taken 
place. A woman had fainted, without reason or 
cause she had risen and had floated through the 
air and had utterly vanished in the midst of the 
crowd. For an instant they remained spellbound, 
awed into absolute silence. And in that instant 
Lemuel had entered the drug 3tore with his burden 
and had deposited her gently but hurriedly upon a 
chair, where, as instantaneously as she had van- 
ished, she again resumed her customary form. As 
every occupant of the shop had rushed to the doors 
and windows to see what was taking place on the 
street, nobody noticed the sudden reappearance of 
the woman. To me it was all nearly as surprising 
as to the public, but I had sense enough left to 
hastily don my glasses, as Lemuel slipped past the 
white-clad employees of the store, and, taking care 
not to collide with another bystander, rejoined me. 

We had no desire to linger and see the results of 
the affair, and hurried from the crowd and turned 
into a nearby cross street. I could scarcely berate 
my friend for what had occurred, for it had been 
an unavoidable accident, but I did not hesitate to 
use it as an example of the dire results which might 
follow if he kept on with his experiment or made 
his secret public. 

Lemuel wa3, however, far more excited and dis- 



turbed than I, and without even attempting to re- 
ply he rushed into a subway entrance. Without 
stopping to think he hurried to the change booth 
and thrust a quarter under the wicket. Without 
glancing up, the occupant shoved back five nickels, 
and my friend gathered them up. But as the coins 
slid from the wooden shelf and vanished without 
apparent reason, and with no human hand grasping 
them, the man peered from his cage. An expression 
of mortal terror swept across his stolid features, 
and, with an inarticulate, choking cry, he reeled 
backward from his stool. But Lemuel did not stop. 
The events of the past few minutes had completely 
upset him, and the scientific mind when upset often 
becomes panicky. For the moment he had, no 
doubt, completely forgotten that he was invisible, 
and, rushing forward, he boarded the train with me 
at his heels. Fortunately it was a dull hour for 

the subway my friend was not forced to jostle or 

push his way, which most assuredly would have re- 
resulted in further troubles— -— - less than half a 
dozen passengers were within the car which we 
entered. Lemuel sat silent, evidently composing 
his thoughts, and fumbling in one of his pockets. 
The next moment a terrified shout reechoed through 
the car; a woman fainted; the guard appeared at 
the door; there was the hissing of released air, and 
the train came to a jolting, lurching stop. I had a 
premonition of what had occurred, and, snatching 
off the pink glasses, I found my worst fears more 
than fulfilled. The car and its oaeupants had com- 
pletely disappeared! With eyes fairly popping from 
their sockets, mouth agape, and shaking as if with 
ague, the guard stood on the platform of the next 
car, staring, utterly aghast, at the void that 
stretched between him and the car ahead. Reason 
and instinct told him it was impossible, but his 
senses told him that a car had completely vanished 
while speeding at fifty miles an hour, and had 
taken its passengers along with it. So thoroughly 
frightened and flabbergasted was the guard that 
even Lemuel's voice, issuing from space, failed to 
attract his attention. 

"Confound the thing!" exclaimed my companion, 
"I must have pressed the wrong button, or it may 
have been shifted when I carried that fainting wo- 
man. Likely as not it wag injured when that mis- 
erable creature seated herself in my lap. Now — " 

"My God, man! Can't you do something?" I 
cried, visions of the car and its oceupants remain- 
ing forever invisible flashing through my mind. 

Then, as instantaneously and unexpectedly as it 
had vanished, the car was once more in the train. 
It had all occurred in a few seconds, and the be- 
wildered passengers stared about, rubbing their 
eyes as if awakening from a dream, while the guard, 
blinking and muttering, jerked the signal cord and 
the train again rumbled on. 

Fortunately for all concerned, Dr. Unsinn had 
managed to get his devilish machine to function 
properly, and no harm had came of the incident, 
but I had had about enough of it all, and I feared 
that, at any moment, the apparatus might fail en- 
tirely or might do the wrong thing. At the next 
stop I left the train, forcing my friend along with 
me, and, dragging Km into an obscure corner of 



912 



AMAZING STORIES 



the station platform where there was no chance of 
being overheard, I expressed my view of his ex- 
periment, in no gentle terms. 

"You can't expect a delicate device to withstand 
two hundred and fifty pounds of feminine flesh and 
bone, can you?" he demanded. "I'm not surprised 
that it was temporarily disarranged. But it's en- 
tirely right now. If you don't believe it I'll demon- 
strate it right here." 

"Don't you dare!" I exclaimed. "You'll resume 
your normal form, as a demonstration, and we'll 
go to lunch. Then back to my apartments and no 
more of this experiment. You've caused enough 
trouble for one day and I'll have a nervous break- 
down if this sort of thing continues." 

"I'll agree on one condition," replied Lemuel 
with more readiness than I had expected. "I'm 
determined to try my experiment on that unfinished 
building. After that I'll cease my experiment for 
today." 

In vain I argued. Lemuel could be as obstinate 
as a mule at times, and, at last, realizing that he 
was bound to carry out his desires and that if I 
left him he might bring about dire results when 
alone, I assented to his condition. 

So, with Dr. Unsinn once more his usual self, 
we found a quiet restaurant where I was accustomed 
to dining. The waiter, having taken our order, 
handed me a copy of the latest edition of a paper,, 
and, half fearfully, I glanced through it, expect- 
ing to find an account of one or more of the strange 
occurrences for which we had been responsible. But 
nothing had appeared, and I decided that, in all 
probability, the witnesses had not cared to report 
an experience which would expose them to ridicule 
and a suspicion of insanity. 

Lemuel was in high spirits. To be sure, he had 
made one or two mistakes, but, in each case, as he 
took care to point out to me, his errors had, as 
he put it, added to the value of his experiment and 
of his observations. And he could not resist crow- 
ing over me a bit when he called my attention to 
the fact that neither panic nor disasters had re- 
sulted. 

"It is exactly as I foresaw," he declared. "The 
entirely new and unknown does not terrorize hu- 
man beings. Wonder and amazement temporarily 
paralyze the muscles, and, as you should know, two 
opposed impressions cannot occupy the mind at the 
same time. Hence fear cannot have a place where 
wonder is predominant. ' . 

"No, my friend, your fears of my discovery creat- 
ing a panic or causing terror and shock are ab- 
solutely unfounded." 

"Yau forget about the woman who fainted, and 
the man in the subway," I reminded him. 

"Utterly beside the question," he snorted. "In 
the case of the woman it was bodily contact which 
frightened her, and, in the other case, the fact that 
the money vanished. In neither case was it due to 
fright at my invisibility." 

"It's hopeless to argue with you," I said. "In- 
directly, your invisibility was at the bottom of it, 
and Heaven alone knows what a panic might have 
resulted if that car had remained invisible long 



enough for the passengers of the other cars to have 
investigated the cause of the train stopping." 

"I can and shall prove I am right," he declared. 
"Come, we'll have a try at that building and I'll 
wager no one will be terrified." 

"For Heaven's sake, don't vanish here!" I cried, 
as I saw Lemuel reach towards an inner pocket. 
"Wait until we are alone. I'd suggest a telephone 
booth as the most convenient and safest spot." 

A few momenta later my friend entered a booth, 
and almost instantly emerged, visible only to my- 
self. Hailing a taxi, we were soon in the vicinity 
of the partly completed Hartwell Building. It was 
the lunch hour and very few persons were on the 
street. Opposite the building a chauffeur dozed 
in his taxi, two fruit vendors argued in vociferous 
Italian on the corner, and a few pedestrians who 
had dined early were wandering about gazing into 
shop windows. Entering the main doorway of the 
building we found ourselves in the spacious rotunda 
with its litter of discarded building materials and 
abandoned scaffoldings. 

"Ah, here we are!" exclaimed Lemuel gleefully. 
"Now, if my pocket apparatus can produce results 
on this edifice I shall feel that nothing is too great, 
to be rendered invisible. Entire armies, navies, 
cities, yes— — " 

"Then I hope it doesn't work," I interrupted. 

But my hopes were in vain. As Lemuel had been 
speaking, he had adjusted his instrument and 
scarcely had my last word been uttered, when the 
twenty stories of concrete, steel and stone dis- 
solved about us, leaving us, invisible to others, 
standing in air above the yawning abyss of the 
foundation excavation. 

For a brief instant, no one within sight appeared 
to notice that the structure had vanished. Then 
the dozing chauffeur jerked upright, his jaw sag- 
ged, and with a wild yell he sat transfixed, pointing 
dramatically at the empty lot where the building 
had stood. At his cry everyone on the street turned. 
Shouts and exclamations drew occupants of stores 
and restaurants on the, run. With screeching horns 
taxis came tearing into the street, and in almost no 
time Nineteenth Street wa3 filled with a gaping, 
gesticulating, excited crowd. 

"Didn't I tell you so?" cried Lemuel trium- 
phantly. "No one is frightened. All — " His 
words were cut short by the clanging of a bell 
as a patrol wagon came dashing around a corner, 
while from the opposite direction, the screaming 
siren of a fire truck added to the uproar. 

"Quick!" I cried, "Someone's called the police 
and turned in a fire alarm. In a minute they'll be 
here. They'll find us and there'll be the devil to 
pay!" 

Lemuel roared with glee. "You forget we're' in- 
visible" he reminded me. "And it will be highly 
amusing to witness the reactions of the police and 
firemen when they find solid walls where obviously 
there are none. And imagine the results when those 
who succeed in entering vanish instantly." 

"Turn off the damnable machine instantly," I 
commanded him, "this has gone far enough." 

The police and firemen were advancing towards 
us, hesitatingly but determined, although what they 



THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



913 



expected to accomplish or why they imagined their 
services were required, is still a mystery to me. 
As I have said before, habit is one of the strongest 
of influences. Dr. Unsinn, being a great respector 
of law, and seeing the poliee approaching, suc- 
cumbed to force of habit and almost involuntarily 
stopped his mechanism. Instantly the huge build- 
ing once more towered above the street, and with a 
hoarse ciy of warning and alarm, the crowd broke 
and fled, seeking refuge in doorways and stores as 
if fearing the structure might crash thundering in- 
to the street. Even the police sprang back, but 
the firemen, to their credit be it said, stood their 
ground, and, thinking something was expected of 
them, turned half a dozen streams of water on the 
building. In the excitement Lemuel and I slipped 
unseen from a rear . entrance and hurried from 
sight around a corner. 

Despite all my experiences with my friend's dis- 
covery I was shaken and upset by this latest demon- 
stration of his power, and even Lemuel was, I 
could see, in a highly excitable frame of mind. His 
device had exceeded even his most sanguine ex- 
pectations and his experiment had, from his point 
of view, been a huge success- 
Several times he started to speak, but each time 
I checked him, for the sidewalks were thronged 
with pedestrians and I had no desire to have atten- 
tion turned towards us after our latest achieve- 
ment. 

We were now in a shopping district, and as we 
walked along, picking our way with care in order 
that Lemuel might not jostle some passer-by, I 
noticed a rough-looking, heavily-built fellow loiter- 
ing near the edge of the sidewalk and furtively 
glancing at each woman who passed him. Suddenly 
he darted forward, snatched a handbag from a 
stylishly-dressed girl, and dashed up the street. 
Screaming that she had been robbed, the girl 
started after him. Cries of "Stop thief!" re- 
sounded from every side, and a score of persons 
turned and gave chase. Lemuel and I had been 
nearest to the fellow, and with one accord we were 
after him, quite forgetting that one of us was in- 
visible. Dashing around a corner, the rascal 
entered an almost deserted side street with us at his 
heels and the howling mob half a block in the rear. 
In my youth I had been something of a runner, and 
Lemuel had, it flashed over me, won the coveted "S" 
of our university as a sprinter. Rapidly we gained 
upon the fellow, and, as he turned to duck into an 
alleyway, Lemuel grasped him by the coat with a 
command to halt. 

Instantly, and without stopping, the fellow half 
turned and dealt a vicious, back-handed blow with 
his doubled fist. It caught Lemuel full in the face, 
and with a gasping cry he staggered back into my 
arms with a two inch gash laying bare the cheek 
bone and blood gushing from the wound. But 
even at that moment, while supporting my injured 
comrade, my attention was focussed upon the ruf- 
fian who had struck him down. Feeling the impact 
of his fist upon a fellow-being's flesh, he had 
wheeled, and, the next moment, stood rooted to 
the spot. 
Instead of a form stretched on the pavement or a 



battered man staggering back, not a living soul 
was near with the exception of myself. The fel- 
low's eyes grew wide, his mouth opened, and the 
next moment he uttered a terrified scream, and 
dropping the band-bag fell to his knees, covering 
his eyes with his hands, babbling incoherently, and 
shaking with mortal fear. Upon the flagging be- 
fore me was a blotch of blood, and, from nowhere, 
drops of blood were slowly adding to the crimson 
pool. Lemuel might be invisible but the blood from 
his wound was not. To the cowering, superstitioue 
wretch, the blood, slowly dripping from an unseen 
victim, must have been a most awful and terrifying 
sight. 

The oncoming mob now was nearly upon us, and, 
a dozen fears swept through my confused brain. 
What if the blood stains on the pavement attracted 
attention and an explanation were demanded? What 
would happen to my invisible companion, as the 
mob, dashing onward, bore him down and trampled 
him under foot? And what if the cowering wretch 
before us blurted out the truth? But I need not 
have worried. So intent were the man-chasers up- 
on their quarry that they gave no heed even to me, 
and in a moment, the red blotch was completely 
obliterated by scores of feet, as the crowd sur- 
rounded us and seized the thief who offered no re- 
sistance. And almost by a miracle Dr. Unsinn 
escaped the fate I had feared. I sprang behind him 
as the mob reached us and thus partially shielded 
him, but despite this, the shouting, panting, per- 
spiring crowd jostled and bumped him, tearing his 
coat half from his shoulders, knocking his spectacles 
into the street where they were instantly ground 
to bits underfoot, tearing his collar awry, knocking 
off his hat and, as I knew from his half-stifled 
grunts, exclamations and ejaculations, giving him 
many a painful jab and bump with elbows and 
shoulders. But in that hub-bub, the cries of any 
one man were inaudible, and as everyone jostled 
and pushed his neighbor no one noticed that an in- 
visible but solid human form was in their midst. 
Luckily the mob surged forward around the thief 
and left a fairly clear space through which I half- 
dragged, half-pushed my battered, bruised and dis- 
hevelled comrade. 

Attracted by the commotion, half a dozen taxis 
had drawn up to the curb, their drivers craning 
their necks and peering into the milling crowd 
about the captive, and giving no heed to anything 
else. Quickly opening the door of the nearest, 1 
bundled Lemuel inside, and, at last succeeding in 
gaining the chauifeur's attention, I ordered him to 
drive off. He turned with a half-uttered oath and 
refused to move, but noticing my own rumpled ap- 
pearance, and realizing I had been in the thick of 
the trouble, his tone changed and he asked what it 
was all about. In a few words I explained that it 
was merely a purse-snatcher, and that I had been 
knocked over in the melee. For an instant he 
gazed suspiciously at me, for my hands were a bit 
smeared with Lemuel's blood, and for a brief instant 
I trembled for fear he would drive us to the nearest 
police station. But he had lost interest in the 
crowd and excitement, and as I suggestively showed 
(.Continued on page 969) 



% First Men^ We Moon 



Author ol "The Crystal Egg," "The Island of Dr. Moreau," etc. 




914 



What Went Before 



SEDFORD is a writer, but he also h 
confidence in his abilities as a first-rate busi- 
ness man. Because of soma business reverses, he 
has gone off to a very secluded spot to write a play 
and so make up some of his financial losses. But even 
there he cannot work undisturbed, for every day at 
the same hour, a Mr. Cavor passes by his house, 
stops, makes some buzzing sounds, stays awhile, 
looks at his watch, and returns to his own home. 
Bedford talks to him and stops this annoying pro- 
cedure, but its cessation makes it impossible for 
Cavor to continue with his work. He mentions this 
fact to Bedford, and in the course of the conversa- 
tion, new plans and ideas are developed. Mr. Cavor 
is a scientist and just now is working on a new in- 
vention, which he calls Gavoritc and which is sup- 
posed to be opaque to gravitation— cutting off 
bodies from gravitating to each other. 

Bedford becomes enthusiastic and sees great com- 
mercial possibilities for CavorUe and agrees to drop 
his writing and become "business manager" for 
Cavor and Cavorite. 

Soon Cavor accidentia succeeds in his experi- 



ments and the accident causes some thousands of 
dollars in damages to surrounding buildings and, 
both their homes and almost cost them their lives. 
But though the discovery proves so nearly dis- 
astrous, Cavor gets a new inspiration and he starts 
work on his new idea immediately. He builds a 
space flyer, which proves to be a perfect conveyance 
for interplanetary travel. They go off to the moon, 
provisioned with plenty. of condensed food and other 
necessary comforts for a long trip. They arrive 
on the moon without any mishap, just before the 
Lunar dawn. Soon after they land, the black and 
white of the scenery disappear. The glare of the 
sun takes on a faint tinge of amber and the shadows 
are deep purple and to the westiuard the sky is 
blue and clear, and the arctic appearance is gone. 
Then an atmosphere rose about them, but still it 
seemed like a lifeless world. And then, suddenly, 
they saw movement — little oval bodies that looked 
like pebbles, bursting open one by one — and in a 
short time, the whole slope was dotted with small 
plants, growing quickly into huge strikes and fleshy 
vegetation. 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



By H. G. WELLS 
PART II] 




CHAPTER IX 
Prospecting Begins 

| E ceased to gaze. We turned to each 
other, the same thought, the same ques- 
tion in our eyes. For these plants to 
grow, there must be some air, however 
attenuated, air that we also should be 
able to breathe. 

"The manhole?" I said. 
"Yes!" said Cavor, "if it is air we see!" 
"In a little while," I 
said, "these plants will he 
as high as we are. Sup- 
pose — suppose after all 

Is it cei'tain? How 

do you know that stuff is 
air? It may be nitrogen 
— it may be carbonic acid 
gas, event" 

"That is easy," he said, 
and set about proving it. 
He produced a big piece 
of crumpled paper from 
the bale, lit it, and thrust 
it hastily through the 
manhole valve, I faent 



TN the first installment of this story we left our adveutur- 
crs just as they had landed on the moon. Grotesque as 
the adventures were upon the landing, they are as nought 
compared to what is in store for our tra-velers 'when they 
meet the inhabitants of the Moon. Nothing more grotesque, 
nothing more imiujiauli-i;-, prulmhly, has eiier been written, 
than the picture that II' tils piiints oj the Lunarians as con- 
tained in this installment. It 'is impressive in its daring and 
breadth, yet it is not at all impossible, perhaps not even 
improbable. If, a.' .!■.'.'"-.■>. :,' :; im :,;:-<.-hu : for c '■■', ■■;/;;;■.■■. « 

to roam about the Mom'., due In its lack of atmosphere, and 
if there is an atmosphere within the Moon, then creatures 
of the kind'that Mr. Wells paints so -vividly in this story 
might well be expected to be seen there, if explorers ever 1 
land upon that satellite. 



I saw a little blue tongue upon the edge of it that 
trembled, and crept, and spread! 

Quietly the whole sheet, save where it lay in 
immediate contact with the snow, charred and 
shrivelled and sent up a quivering thread of smoke. 
There was no doubt left to me; the atmosphere of 
the moon was either pure oxygen or air, and capable 
therefore — unless its tenuity was excessive — of 
supporting our alien life. We might emerge — and 
live I 

I sat down with my legs on either side of the 
manhole and prepared to 
unscrew it, but Cavor 
stopped me. "There is 
first a little precaution," 
he said. He pointed out 
that although there was 
certainly an oxygenated 
atmosphere outside, it 
might still be so rarefied 
as to cause us grave in- 
jury. He reminded me 
of mountain sickness, and 
of the bleeding that often 
afflicts aeronauts who 
have ascended too swiftly, 
and he spent some time in 
the preparation 



forward and peered down 

through the thick glass for its appearance outside, sickly-tasting drink which he insisted on my shar- 

that little flame on whose evidence depended so ing. It made me feel a little numb, but otherwise 

much ! had no effect on me. Then he permitted me to begin 

I saw the paper drop out and lie lightly upon the unscrewing, 

snow. The pink flame of its burning vanished. For Presently the glass stopper of the manhole was 

an instant it seemed to, be extinguished. And then 'so far undone that the denser air within our sphere 

915 



916 



AMAZING STORIES 



began to escape along the thread of the screw, sing- 
ing as a kettle sings before it boils. Thereupon he 
made me desist. It speedily became evident that 
the pressure outside was very much less than it was 
within. How much less it was we had no means 
of telling. 

I 3at grasping the stopper with both hands, ready- 
to close it again if, in spite of our intense hope, 
the lunar atmosphere should after all prove too 
rarefied for us, and Cavor sat with a cylinder of 
compressed oxygen at hand to restore our pressure. 
We looked at one smother in silence, and then at 
the fantastic vegetation that swayed and grew 
visibly and noiselessly without. And ever that shrill 
piping continued. 

My blood-vessels began to throb in my ears, and 
the sound" of Cavor's movements diminished. I 
noted how still everything had become, because of 
the thinning of the air. y 

As our air sizzled out from the screw the mois- 
ture of it condensed in little puffs. 

Presently I experienced a peculiar shortness of 
breath that lasted indeed during the whole of the 
time of our exposure to the moon's exterior atmo- 
sphere, and a rather unpleasant sensation about the 
ears and finger-nails and the hack of the throat 
grew upon my attention, and presently passed off 
again. 

But then came vertigo and nausea that . abruptly 
changed the quality of my courage. I gave the lid 
of the manhole half a turn and made a hasty ex- 
planation to Cavor; but now he was the more 
sanguine. He answered mc in a voice that seemed 
extraordinarily small and remote, because of the 
thinness of the air that carried the sound. He re- 
commended a nip of brandy, and set me the example, 
and presently I felt better. I turned the manhole 
stopper back again. The throbbing in my ears 
grew louder, and then I remarked that the piping 
note of the outrush had ceased. For a time I could 
not be sure that it had ceased. 

"Well?" said Cavor, in the ghost of a voice. 

"Well?" said I. 

"Shall we go on? 7 ' 

I thought. "Is this all?" 

"If you can stand it," he said. 

By way of answer I went on unscrewing. I lifted 
the circular operculum from its place and laid it 
carefully on the bale. A flake or so of snow whirled 
and vanished as that thin and unfamiliar air took 
possession of our sphere. I knelt, and then seated 
myself at the edge of the manhole, peering over it. 
Beneath, within a yard of my face, lay the untrod- 
den snow of the moon. 

There came a little pause. Our eyes met. 

"It doesn't distress your iungs too much?" said 
Cavor. 

"No," I said. "I can stand this." 

He stretched out his hand for his blanket, thrust 
his head through its central hole, and wrapped it 
about him. He sat down on the edge of the man- 
hole, he let his feet drop until they were within six 
inches of the lunar ground. He hesitated for a 
moment, then thrust himself forward, dropped 
these intervening inches, and stood upon the un- 
trodden soil of the moon. 



As he stepped forward he was refracted grotes- 
quely by the edge of the glass. He stood for a 
moment looking this way and that. Then he drew 
himself together and leapt. 

The glass distorted everything, but it seemed to 
me even then to be an extremely big leap. He had 
at one bound become remote. He seemed twenty 
or thirty feet off. He was standing high upon a 
rocky mass and gesticulating back to me. Perhaps 
he was shouting — but the sound did not reach me. 
But how the deuce had he done this? I felt like 
a man who has just seen a new conjuring trick. 

In a puzzled state of mind I too dropped through 
the manhole. I stood up. Just in front of me the 
snowdrift had fallen away and made a sort of ditch. 
I made a step and jumped. 

I found myself flying through the air, saw the 
rock on which he stood coming to muet me, clutched 
it and clung in a state of infinite amazement. 

I gasped a painful laugh. I was tremendously 
confused. Cavor bent down and shouted in piping 
tones for me to be careful. 

I had forgotten that on the moon, with only an 
eightieth part of the earth's mass and a quarter of 
its diameter, my weight was barely a sixth what it 
was on earth. But now that fact insisted on being 
remembered. 

"We are out of Mother Earth's leading-strings 
now," he said. 

With a guarded effort I raised myself to the top, 
and moving as cautiously as a rheumatic patient, 
stood up beside him under the blaze of the sun. 
The sphere lay behind us on its dwindling snow- 
drift thirty feet away. 

As far as the eye could see over the enormous 
disorder of rocks that formed the crater floor, the 
same bristling scrub that surrounded us was start- 
ing into life, diversified here and there by bulging 
masses of a cactus form, and scarlet and purple 
lichens that gTew so fast they seemed to craw! over 
the rocks. The whole area of the crater seemed 
to me then to be one similar wilderness up to the 
very foot of the surrounding cliff. 

This cliff was apparently bare of vegetation save 
at its base, and with buttresses and terraces and 
platforms that did not very greatly attract our 
attention at the time. It was many miles away from 
us in every direction, we seemed to be almost at 
the centre of the crater, and we saw it through a 
certain haziness that drove before the wind. For 
there was even a wind now in the thin air, a swift 
yet weak wind that chilled exceedingly but exerted 
little pressure. It was blowing round the crater, as 
it seemed, to the hot illuminated side from the foggy 
darkness under the sunward wall. It was difficult 
to look into this eastward fog; we had to peer with 
half-closed eyes beneath the shade of our hands, 
because of the fierce intensity of the motionless sun, 
"It seems to be deserted," said Cavor, "absolutely 
desolate." 

I looked about me again. I retained even then a 
clinging hope of some quasi-human evidence, some 
pinnacle or building, some house or engine, but 
everywhere one looked spread the tumbled rocks in 
peaks and crests and the darting scrub and those 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



917 



bulging cacti that swelled and swelled, a flat nega- 
tion as it seemed of all such hope. 

"It looks as though these plants had it to them- 
selves," I said. "I see no trace of any other crea- 
ture." 

"No insects — no birds — no! Not a trace, not a 
scrap nor particle of animal life. If there was— 
what would they do in the night? ... No; there's 
just these plants alone," 

. I shaded my eyes with my hand. "It's like the 
landscape of a dream. These things are less like 
earthly land plants than the things one imagines 
among the rocks at the bottom of the sea. Look 
at that yonder! One might imagine it a lizard 
changed into a plant. And the glare!" 

"This is only the fresh morning," said Cavor. 

He sighed and looked about him. "This is no 
world for men," he said. "And yet in a way — it 
appeals." 

He became silent for a time, then, commenced his 
meditative humming. 

I started at a gentle touch, and found a thin sheet 
of iivid lichen lapping over my shoe. I kicked at 
it and it fell to powder, and each speck began to 
grow. 

I beard Cavor exclaim sharply, and perceived 
that one of the fixed bayonets of the scrub had 
pricked him. 

He hesitated, his eyes sought among the rocks 
about us. A sudden blaze of pink had crept -up a 
ragged pillar of crag. It was a. most extraordinary 
pink, a livid magenta. 

"Look!" said I, turning, and behold, Cavor had 
vanished. 

For an instant I stood transfixed. Then I made a 
hasty step to look over the verge of the rock. But 
in my surprise at his disappearance I forgot once 
more that we were on the moon. The thrust of 
my foot that I made in striding would have carried 
me a yard on earth; on the moon it carried me sis 
— a good five yards over the edge. For the moment 
the thing had something of the effect of those night; 
mares when one falls and falls. For while one 
falls sixteen feet in the first second of a fall on 
earth, on the moon one falls two, and with only 
a^sixth of one's weight. I fell, or rather I jumped 
down, about ten yards I suppose. It seemed to take 
quite a long time, five or six seconds, I should 
think. I floated through the air and fell like a 
feather, knee-deep in a snow-drift in the bottom of 
a gully of blue-gray, white-veined rock. 

I looked about me. "Cavor!" I cried; but no 
Cavor was visible. 

"Cavor!" I cried louder, and the rocks echoed me. 

I turned fiercely to the rocks and clambered to 
the summit of them. "Cavor!" I cried. My voice 
sounded like the voice of a lost lamb. 

The sphere, too, was not in sight, and for a 
moment a horrible feeling of desolation pinched 
my heart. 

Then I saw him. He was laughing and gesticu- 
lating to attract my attention. He was on a bare 
patch of rock twenty or thirty yards away. I could 
not hear his voice, but "jump" said his gestures. I 
hesitated, the distance seemed enormous. Yet I 



reflected that surely I must be able to clear a 
greater distance than Cavor. 

I made a step back, gathered myself together, 
and leapt -with all my might. I seemed to shoot 
right up in the air as though I should never come 
down. ... 

It was horrible and delightful, and as wild as a 
nightmare, to go flying off in this fashion. I realized 
my leap had been altogether too violent. I flew 
clean over Cavor's head and beheld a spiky con- 
fusion in a gully spreading to meet my fall. I gave 
a yelp of alarm. I put out my hands and straight- 
ened my legs, 

I hit a huge fungoid bulk that burst all about me, 
scattering a mass of orange spores in every direc- 
tion, and covering me with orange powder. I rolled 
over spluttering, and came to rest convulsed with 
breathless laugh*ter. 

I 'became aware of Cavor's little round face peer- 
ing over a bristling hedge. He shouted some faded 
inquiry. "Eh?" I tried to shout, but could not do 
so for want of breath. He made his way towards 
me, coming gingerly among the bushes. 

"We've got to be careful," he said. "This moon 
has no discipline. She'll let us smash ourselves." 

He helped me to my feet. "You exerted your- 
self too much," he said, dabbing at the yellow stuff, 
with his hand to remove it from my garments. 

I- stood passive and panting, allowing him to beat 
off the spores from my knees and elbows and lecture 
me upon my misfortunes. "We don't quite * allow 
for the gravitation. Our muscles are scarcely 
educated yet. We must practise a little, when you 
have got your breath." 

I pulled two or three little thorns out of my 
hand, and sat for a time on a boulder of roek. My 
muscles were quivering, and I had that feeling of ■ 
personal disillusionment that comes at the first fall 
to the learner of cycling on earth. 

It suddenly occurred to Cavor that the cold air 
in the gully, after the brightness of the sun, might 
give me a fever. So we clambered back into the 
sunlight. We found that beyond a few abrasion.-* 
I bad received no serious injuries from my tumble, 
and at Cavor's suggestion we were presently looking 
round for some safe and easy landing-place for my 
next leap. We chose a rocky slab some ten yards 
off, separated from -us by a little thicket of olive- 
green spikes. 

"Imagine it there!" said Cavor, who was assum- 
ing the airs of a trainer, and he pointed to a spot 
about four feet from my toes. This leap I managed 
without difficulty, and I must confess I found a 
certain satisfaction in Cavor's falling short by a 
foot or so and tasting the spikes of the scrub. "One 
has to be careful, you see," he said, pulling out 
his thorns, and with that he ceased to be my mentor 
and became my fellow-learner in the art of lunar 
locomotion. 

We chose a still easier jump and did it without 
difficulty, and then leapt back again, and to and 
fro several times, accustoming our muscles to the 
new standard. I could never have believed had 
I not experienced it, how rapid that adaptation 
would be. In a very little time indeed, certainly 
after fewer than thirty leaps, we could judge the 



218 



AMAZING STORIES 



effort necessary for a distance with almost ter- 
restrial assurance. 

And all this time the lunar plants were growing 
around us, higher and denser and more entangled, 
every moment thicker and taller, spiked plants, 
green cactus masses, fungi, fleshy and liehenous 
things, strangest radiate and sinuous shapes. But 
we were SO intent upon our leaping, that for a time 
we gave no heed to their unfaltering expansion. 

An extraordinary elation had taken possession 
of us. Partly, I think, it was our sense of release 
from the confinement of the sphere. Mainly, how- 
ever, the thin sweetness of the air, which I am 
certain contained a much larger proportion of 
oxygen than our terrestrial atmosphere. In spite 
of the strange quality of all about us, I felt a3 
adventurous and experimental as a cockney would 
do plated for the first time among mountains; and 
I do not think it occurred to either of us, face to 
face though we were with the unknown, to be very 
greatly afraid. 

We were bitten by a spirit of enterprise. We 
selected a liehenous kopje perhaps fifteen yards 
away, and landed neatly on its summit one after- 
the other. "Good!" we cried to each other; "good!" 
and Cavor made three steps and went off to a tempt- 
ing slope of snow a good twenty yards and more 
beyond. I stood for a moment struck by the 
grotesque effect of his soaring figure — his dirty 
cricket cap, and spiky hair, his little round body, his 
arms and his knickerbockered legs tucked up tightly 
— against the weird spaciousness of the lunar scene. 
A gust of laughter seized me, and then I stepped 
off to follow. Plump! I dropped beside him. 

We made a few Gargantuan strides, leapt three 
or four times more, and sat down at last in a 
liehenous hollow. Our lungs were painful. We 
sat holding our sides and recovering our breath, 
looking appreciation at one another. Cavor panted 
something about "amazing sensations." And then 
came a thought into my head. For the moment 
it did not seem a particularly appalling thought, 
simply a natural question arising out of the situa- 
tion, 

"By the way," I said, "where exactly is the ' 
sphere?" 

Cavor looked at me. "Eh?" 

The full meaning of what we were saying struck 
me sharply. 

"Cavor!" I cried, laying a hand on his arm, 
"where is the sphere?" 

CHAPTER X 
Lost Men in the Moon 

HIS face caught something of my dismay. 
He stood up and stared about him at the 
scrub that fenced us in and rose about us, 
straining upward in a passion of growth. He put 
a dubious hand to his lips. He spoke with a sudden 
lack of assurance. "I think," he said slowly, "we left 
it . . . somewhere . . . about there." 

He pointed a hesitating finger that wavered in 



not sure." His look of consternation selves r 



deepened. "Anyhow," he said, with his eyes on me, 
"it can't be far." 

We had both stood up. We made unmeaning 
ejaculations, our eyes sought in the twining, 
thickening jungle round about us. 

All about us on the sunlit slopes frothed and 
swayed the darting shrubs, the swelling cactus, 
the creeping lichens, and wherever the shade re- 
mained the snowdrifts lingered. North, south, east 
and west spread an identical monotony of un- 
familiar forms. And somewhere, buried among 
this tangled confusion, was our sphere, our home, 
our only provision, our only hope of escape from 
this fantastic wilderness of ephemeral growths into 
which we had come. 

"I think, after all," he said, pointing suddenly, 
"it might be over there." 

"No," I said. "We have turned in a curve. See? 
here is the mark of my heels. It's clear the thing 
must be more to the eastward, much more. No! — ■ 
the sphere must be over there." 

"I think" said Cavor, "I kept the sun upon 
my right all the time." 

"Every leap, it seems to me," I said, "my shadow 
flew before me." 

We stared into one another's eyes. The area of 
the crater had become enormously vast to our 
imaginations, the growing thickets already im- 
penetrably dense. 

"Good heavens ! What fools we have been !" 

"It's evident that we must find it again," said 
Cavor, "and that soon. The sun grows stronger. 
We should be fainting with the heat already if it 
wasn't so dry. And . . . I'm hungry." 

I stared at him. I had not suspected this aspect 
of the matter before. But it came to me at once — 
a positive craving. "Yes," I said with emphasis. 
"I am hungry too." 

He stood up with a look of active resolution. 
"Certainly we must find the sphere." 

As calmly as possible we surveyed the intermin- 
able reefs and thickets that formed the floor of the 
crater, each of us weighing in silence the chances 
of our finding the sphere before we were over- 
taken by heat and hunger. 

"It can't be fifty yards from here," said Cavor, 
with indecisive gestures. "The only thing 13 to 
beat round about until we come upon it." 

"That is all we can do," I said, without any 
alacrity to begin our hunt. "I wish this confounded 
spike bush did not grow so fasti" 

"That's just it," said Cavor. "But it was lying 
on a bank of snow." 

I stared about me in the vain hope of recognising 
some knoll or shrub that had been near the sphere. 
But everywhere was a confusing sameness, every- 
where the aspiring hushes, the distending fungi, 
the dwindling snow banks, steadily and inevitably 
changed. The sun scorched and stung, and faint- 
ness of an unaccountable hunger mingled with our 
infinite perplexity. And even as we stood there, 
confused and lost amidst unprecedented things, we 
became aware for the first time of a sound upon the 
moon other than the stir of the growing plants, 
the faint sighing of the wind, or those that we our- 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



919 



Boom. . . Boom. . . . Eoom. . . . 

It came from beneath our feet, a sound in the 
earth. We seemed to hear it with our feet as much 
as with our ears. Its dull resonance was muffled 
by distance, thick with the quality of intervening 
substance. No sound that I can imagine could have 
astonished us more, or have changed more com- 
pletely, the quality of things about us. For this 
sound, rich, slow, and deliberate, seemed to us as 
though it could be nothing but the striking of 
some gigantic buried clock. 

Boom. , . . Boom. . . . Boom. . . . 

Sound suggestive of still cloisters, of sleepless 
nights in crowded cities, of vigils and the awaited 
hour, of all that is orderly and methodical in life, 
booming out pregnant and mysterious in this 
fantastic desert! To the eye everything was un- 
changed : the desolation of bushes and cacti waving 
silently in the wind, stretched unbroken to the dis- 
tant cliffs, the still dark sky was empty overhead, 
and the hot sun hung and burned. And through 
it all, a warning, a threat, throbbed this enigma 
of sound. 

Boom. . . . Boom. . . . Boom. . . . 

We questioned one another in faint and faded 
voices. "A clock?" 

"Like a clock!" 

"What ia it?" 

"What can it be?" 

"Count," was Cavor's belated suggestion, and at 
that word the striking ceased. 

The silence, the rhythmic disappointment of the 
silence, came as a fresh shock. For a moment one 
could doubt whether one had ever heard a sound. 
Or whether it might not still be going on. Had I 
indeed heard a sound? 

I felt the pressure of Cavor's hand upon my arm. 
He spoke in an undertone, as though he feared to 
wake some sleeping thing. "Let us keep together," 
he whispered, "and look for the Bphere. We must 
get back to the sphere. This is beyond our under- 
standing." 

"Which way shall we go?" 

He hesitated. An intense persuasion of pre- 
sences, of unseen things about us and near us, 
dominated our minds. What could they be? Where 
could they be? Was this arid desolation, alternately 
frozen and scorched, only the outer rind and mask 
of some subterranean world? And if so, what sort 
of world? What sort of inhabitants might it not 
presently disgorge upon us? •? 

And then, stabbing the aching stillness as vivid 
and sudden as an unexpected thunderclap, came a 
clang and rattle as though great gates of metal 
had suddenly been flung apart. 

It arrested our steps. We stood gaping helplessly. 
Then Cavor stole towards me. 

"I do not understand!" he whispered close to 
my face. He waved his hand vaguely skyward, the 
vague suggestion of atill vaguer thoughts. 

"A hiding-place! If anything came. . . ■" 

I looked about us. I nodded my head in assent 
to him. 

We started off, moving stealthily with the most 
exaggerated precautions against noise. We went 
towards a thicket of scrub. A clangour, like ham- 



mers flung about a boiler, hastened our steps. "We 
must crawl," whispered Cavor. 

The lower leaves of the bayonet plants, already 
overshadowed by the newer ones above, were begin- 
ning to wilt and shrivel so that we could thrust our 
way in among the thickening stems without serious 
injury. A stab in the face or arm we did not 
heed. At the heart of the thicket I stopped, and 
stared panting into Cavor's face. 

"Subterranean.'^he whispered, "Below." 

"They may come out." 

"We must find the sphere!" 

"Yes," I said; "but how?" 

"Crawl till we come to it." 

"But if we don't?" 

"Keep hidden. See what they are like." 

"We will keep together," said I. 

He thought. "Which way shall we go?" 

"We must take our chance." 

We peered this way and that. Then very cir- 
cumspectly, we began to crawl through the lower 
jungle, making, so far as we could judge, a circuit, 
halting now at every waving fungus, at every sound, 
intent only on the sphere from which we had so 
foolishly emerged. Ever and again from out of 
the earth beneath us came concussions, beatings, 
strange, inexplicable mechanical sounds; and once, 
and then again, we thought we heard something, 
a faint rattle and tumult, borne to us through the 
air. But fearful as we were we dared essay no 
vantage-point to survey the crater. For long we 
saw nothing of the beings whose sounds were so 
abundant and insistent. But for the faintness of 
our hunger and the drying of our throats that 
crawling would have had the quality of a very vivid 
dream. It was so absolutely unreal. The only 
element with any touch of reality was these sounds. 

Figure it to yourself! About us the dream-like 
jungle, with the silent bayonet leaves darting over- 
head, and the silent, vivid, sun-splashed lichens 
under our hands and knees, waving with the vigour 
of their growth as a carpet waves when the wind 
gets beneath it. Ever and again one of the bladder 
fungi, bulging and distending under the sun, loomed 
upon us. Ever and again some novel shape in vivid 
colour obtruded. The very cells that built up these 
plants were as large as my thumb, like beads of 
coloured glass. And all these things were saturated 
in the unmitigated glare of the sun, were seen 
against a sky that was bluish black and spangled 
still, in spite of the sunlight, with a few surviving 
stars. Strange ! the very forms and texture of the 
stones were strange. It was all strange, the feeling 
of one's body was unprecedented, every other move- 
ment ended in a surprise. The breath sucked thin 
in one's throat, the blood flowed through one's ears 
in a throbbing tide — thud, thud, thud, thud. . . . 

And ever and again came gusts of turmoil, ham- 
mering, the clanging and throb of machinery, and 
presently — the bellowing of great beasts! 

CHAPTER XI 
The Mooncalf Pastures 

SO we two poor terrestrial castaways, lost in 
that wild-growing moon jungle, crawled in 
terror before the sounds that had come upon 



920 



AMAZING STORIES 



ua. We crawled, as it seemed, a long time before we 
saw either Selenite or mooncalf, though we heard 
the bellowing and grunting noises of these latter 
continually drawing nearer to us. We crawled 
through stony ravines, over snow slopes, amidst 
fungi that ripped like thin bladders at our thrust, 
emitting a watery humour, over a perfect pavement 
of things like puff-balls, and beneath interminable 
thickets of scrub. And ever more hopelessly our 
eyea sought for our abandoned sphere. The noise 
of the mooncalves would at times be a vast fiat 
L'alf-like sound, at times it rose to an amazed and 
wrathy bellowing, and again it would become a 
clogged bestial sound as though these unseen crea- 
tures had sought to eat and bellow at the same time. 

Our first view was but an inadequate transitory 
glimpse, yet none the less disturbing because it 
was incomplete. -Cavor was' crawling in front at 
the time, and he was first to become aware of their 
proximity. He stopped dead, arresting me with 
a single gesture. 

A crackling and smashing of the scrub appeared 
to be advancing directly upon us, and then, as we 
squatted close and endeavoured to judge of the 
nearness and direction of this noise, there came a 
terrific bellow behind us, so close and vehement that 
the tops of the bayonet scrub bent before it, and 
one felt the breath of it hot and moist. And, turn- 
ing about, we saw indistinctly through a crowd of 
swaying stems the mooncalf's shining sides, and the 
long line of its back loomed out against the sky. 

Of course it is hard for me now to say how much 
1 saw at that time, because my impressions were 
corrected by subsequent observation. First of all 
impressions was its enormous size; the girth rf its 
body was some fourscore feet, its iength perhaps 
two hundred. Its sides rose and fell ,with its 
laboured breathing. I perceived that its gigantic, 
flabby body lay along the ground, and that its skin 
was of a corrugated white, dappling into blackness 
along the backbone. But of its feet we, saw nothing. 
I think also that we saw then the profile at least 
of the almost brainless head, with its fat-encum- 
bered neck, its slobbering omnivorous mouth, its 
little nostrils, and tight shut eyes. (For the moon- 
calf invariably shuts its eyes in the presence of the 
sun.) We had a glimpse of a vast red pit as it 
opened its mouth to bleat and bellow again; we 
had a breath from the pit, and then the monster 
heeled over like a ship, dragged forward along the 
ground, creasing all its leathery akin, rolled again, 
and so wallowed past us, smashing a path amidst 
the scrub, and was speedily hidden from our eyes 
by the dense interfacings beyond. Another appeared 
more distantly, and then another, and then, as 
though he was guiding these animated .lumps of 
provender to their pasture, a Selenite came momen- 
tarily into ken. My grip upon Cavor's foot became 
convulsive at the sight of him, and we remained 
motionless and peering long after he had passed out 
of our range. 

By contrast with the mooncalves he seemed a 
trivia! being, a mere ant, scarcely five feet high. 
He was wearing garments of some leathery sub- 
stance, so that no portion of his actual body ap- 
peared, but of this, of course, we were entirely 



ignorant. He presented himself, therefore, as a 
compact, bristling creature, having much of the 
quality of a complicated insect, with whip-like 
tentacles and a clanging arm projecting from his 
shining cylindrical body case. The form of his head 
was hidden by his enormous many-spiked helmet — 
we discovered afterwards that he used the spikes 
for prodding refractory mooncalves— and a pair of 
goggles of darkened glass, set very much at the 
side, gave a bird-like quality to the metallic ap- 
paratus that covered his face. His arms did not 
project beyond his body case, and he carried him- 
self upon short legs that, wrapped though they 
were in warm coverings, seemed to our terrestrial 
eyes inordinately flimsy. They had very short 
thighs, very long shanks, and little feet. 

In spite of his heavy-looking clothing, he was 
progressing with what would be, from the terres- 
trial point of view, very considerable strides, and 
his clanging arm was busy. The quality of his 
motion during the instant of his passing suggested 
haste and a certain anger, and soon after we had 
lost sight of him we heard the bellow of a moon- 
calf change abruptly into a short, sharp squeal, fol- 
lowed by the scuffle of its acceleration. And 
gradually that bellowing receded, and then came to 
an end, as if the pastures sought had been attained. 

We listened. For a space the moon world was 
still. But itwas some time before we resumed our 
crawling search for the vanished sphere. 

When next we saw mooncalves they were some 
little distance away from us in a place of tumbled 
rocks. The less vertical surfaces of the rocks were 
thick with a speckled green plant growing in dense 
mossy clumps, upon which these creatures were 
browsing. We stopped at the edge of the reeds, 
amidst which we were crawling, at the sight of 
them, peering out at them and looking round for a 
second glimpse of a Selenite. They lay against 
their food like stupendous slugs, huge, greasy hulls, 
eating greedily and noisily, with a sort of sobbing 
avidity. They seemed monsters of mere fatness, 
clumsy and overwhelmed to a degree that would 
make a Smithfield ox seem a model of agility. Their 
busy, writhing, chewing mouths, and eyes closed, 
together with the appetising sound of their munch- 
ing, made up an effect of animai enjoyment that 
was singularly stimulating to our empty frames. 

"Hogs!" said Cavor, with unusual passion. 
"Disgusting hogs!" and after one glare of angry 
envy crawled off through the bushes to our right. 
I stayed long enough to see that the speckled plant 
was quite hopeless .for human nourishment, then 
crawled after him, nibbling a quill of it between my 
teeth. 

Presently we were arrested again by the proxi- 
mity of a Selenite, and this time we were able to 
observe him more exactly. Now we could see that 
the Selenite covering was indeed clothing* and not 
a sort of crustacean integument. He was quite 
similar in his costume to the former one we had 
glimpsed, except that ends of something like wad- 
ding were protruding from his neck, and he stood 
on a promontory of rock and moved hia head this 
way and that, as though he were surveying the 
crater. We lay quite 3tili, fearing to attract hia 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



921 



attention if we moved, and after a time he turned 
about and disappeared. 

We came upon another drove of mooncalves bel- 
lowing up a ravine, and then we passed over a place 
of sounds, sounds of beating machinery, as if some 
huge hall of industry came .near the surface there. 
And while these sounds were still about us we came 
to the edge of a great open space, perhaps two 
hundred yards in diameter, and perfectly level. 
Save for a few lichens that advanced from its mar- 
gin this space was bare, and presented a powdery 
surface of a dusty yellow colour. We were afraid 
to strike out across this space, but as it presented 
less obstruction to our crawling than the scrub, we 
went down upon it and began very circumspectly 
to skirt its edge. 

For a little while the noises from below ceased 
and everything, save for the faint stir of the grow- 
ing vegetation, was very still. Then abruptly there 
began an uproar, louder, more vehement, and nearer 
than any we had so far heard. Of a certainty it 
came from below. Instinctively we crouched as 
flat as we could, ready for a prompt plunge into the 
thicket beside us. Each knock and throb seemed 
to vibrate through our bodies. Louder grew this 
throbbing and beating, and that irregular vibration 
increased until the whole moon world seemed to be 
jerking and pulsing. 

"Cover," whispered Cavor; and I turned towards 
the bushes. 

At that instant came a thud like the thud of a 
gun, and then a thing happened — it still haunts me 
in my dreams. I had turned my head to look at 
Cavor's face, and thrust out my hand in front of 
me as I did so. And my hand met nothing! Plunged 
suddenly into a bottomless hole! 

My chest hit something hard, and I found myself 
with, my chin on the edge of an unfathomable abyss 
that had suddenly opened beneath me, my hand ex- 
tended stiffly into the void. The whole of that flat 
circular area was no more than a gigantic lid, that 
was now sliding sideways from .off the pit it had 
covered into a slot prepared for it. 

Had it not been for Cavor I think I should have 
remained rigid, hanging over this margin and star- 
ing into the enormous gulf below, until at last the 
edges of the slot scraped me off and hurled me into 
its depths. But Cavor had not received the shoek 
that had paralysed me. He had been a little distance 
from the edge when the lid had first opened, and 
perceiving the peril that held me helpless, gripped 
my legs and pulled me backward. I came into a 
sitting position, crawled away from the edge for 
a space on all fours, then staggered up and ran after 
him across the thundering, quivering sheet of metal. 
It seemed to be swinging open with a steadily ac- 
celerated velocity, and the bushes in front of me 
shifted sideways as I ran. 

I was none too soon. Cavor's back vanished 
amidst the bristling thicket, and a3 I scrambled up 
after him, the monstrous valve came, into its posi- 
tion with a clang. For a long time we lay panting, 
Hot daring to approach the pit. 

Bui at last very cautiously and bit hy bit we 
crept into a position from which we could peer 
down. The bushes about us creaked and waved 



with the force of a breeze that was blowing down 
the shaft. We could see nothing at first except 
smooth vertical walls descending at last into an 
impenetrable black. And then very gradually we 
became aware of a number of very faint and little 
lights going to and fro. 

For a time that stupendous gulf of mystery held 
us so that we forgot even our sphere. In time, 
as we grew more accustomed to the darkness, we 
could make out very small, dim, elusive shapes mov- 
ing about among those needle-point illuminations. 
We peered amazed and incredulous, understanding 
so little that we could find no words to say. We 
could distinguish nothing that would give us a clue 
to the meaning of the faint shapes we saw. 

"What can it be?" I asked; "what can it be?" 

"The engineering! . . . They must live in these 
caverns during the night, and come out during the 
day." 

"Cavor!" I said. "Can they be — that — it was 
something like — men?" 

"Tliat was not a man." 

"We dare risk nothing!" 

"We dare do nothing until we find the sphere I" 

"We can do nothing until we find the sphere." 

He assented with a groan and stirred himself 
to move. He stared about him for a space, sighed, 
and indicated a direction. We struck out through 
the jungle. For a time we crawled resolutely, then 
with diminishing vigour. Presently among great 
shapes of flabby purple there came a noise of tramp- 
ling and cries about us. We lay close, and for a 
long time the sounds went to and fro and very 
near. But this time we saw nothing. I tried to 
whisper to Cavor that I could hardly go without 
food much longer, but my mouth had become too 
dry for whispering. 

"Cavor," I said, "I must have food." 

He turned a face full of dismay towards me. 

"It's a case for holding out," he said. 

"But I must," I said, "and look at my lips!" 

"I've been thirsty some time." 

"If only some of that snow had remained!" 

"It's clean gone! We're driving from arctic to 
tropical at the rate of a degree a minute. . . ." 

I gnawed my hand. 

"The sphere!" he said. "There is nothing for. 
it but the sphere." 

We roused ourselves to another spurt of crawling. 
My mind ran entirely on edible things, on the hiss- 
ing profundity of summer drinks, more particularly 
I craved for beer. I was haunted by the memory 
of a sixteen gallon cask that had swaggered in my 
Lympne cellar. I thought of the adjacent larder, 
and especially of steak and kidney pie — tender 
steak and plenty of kidney, and rich, thick gravy 
between. Ever and again I was seized with fits of 
hungry yawning. We came to flat places overgrown 
with fleshy red things, monstrous coralline growths ; 
as we pushed against them they snapped, and broke. 
I noted the quality of the broken surfaces. The 
confounded stuff certainly looked of a biteable 
texture. Then it seemed to me that it smelt rather 
well. ' - 

I picked up a fragment and sniffed at it. 

"Cavor," I said in a hoarse undertone. 



922 



AMAZING STORIES 



He glanced at me with his face screwed up. 
"Don't," he said. I put down the fragment, and 
we crawled on through this tempting fleshiness for 
a space. 

"Cavor," I asked "why notV 

"Poison," I heard him say, but he did not look 
round. 

We crawled some way before I decided. 

"I'll chance it," said I. 

He made a belated gesture to prevent me. I 
stuffed my mouth full. He crouched watching my 
face, his own twisted into the oddest expression. 
"It's good," I said. 

"O Lord!" he cried. 

He watched me munch, his face wrinkled between 
desire and disapproval, then suddenly succumbed 
to appetite and began to tear off huge mouthfuls. 
For a time we did nothing but eat. 

The stuff was not unlike a terrestrial mushroom, 
only it was much laxer in texture, and, as one 
swallowed it, it warmed the throat. At first we ex- 
perienced a mere mechanical satisfaction in eating; 
then our blood began to run warmer, and we tingled 
at the lips and fingers, and then new and slightly 
irrelevant ideas came bubbling up in our minds. 

"It's good," said I. "Infernally good! What a 
home for our surplus population! Our poor surplus 
population," and I broke off another large portion. 

It filled me with a curiously benevolent satis- 
faction that there was such good food in the moon. 
The depression of my hunger gave way to an irra- 
tional exhilaration. The dread and discomfort in 
which I had been living vanished entirely. I per- 
ceived the moon no longer as a planet from which I 
most earnestly desired the means of escape, but as 
a possible refuge for human destitution. I think I 
forgot the Selenites, the mooncalves, the lid, and 
the noises completely so soon as I had eaten that 
fungus. 

Cavor replied to my third repetition of my "sur- 
plus population" remark with similar words of ap- 
proval. I felt that my head swam, but I put this 
down to the stimulating effect of food after a long 
fast. "Ess'Ient discov'ry yours, Cavor," said I. 
"Se'nd on'y to the 'tato." 

"Whajer mean?" asked Cavor. '"Scovery of the 
moon — se'nd on'y to the 'tato?" 

I looked at him, shocked at his suddenly hoarse 
voice, and by the badness of his articulation. It 
occurred to me in a flash that he was intoxicated, 
possibly by the fungus. It also occurred to me that 
he erred in imagining that he had discovered the 
moon; he had not discovered it, he had only reached 
it. I tried to iay my hand on his arm and explain 
this to him, but the issue was too subtle for his 
brain. It was also unexpectedly difficult to express. 
After a momentary attempt to understand me— I 
remember wondering if the fungus had made my 
eyes as fishy as his — he set off upon some observa- 
tions on his own account. 

"We are," he announced with a solemn hiccup, 
"the ereashurs o' what we eat and drink." 

He repeated this, and as I was now in one of my 
subtle moods, I determined to dispute it. Possibly 
I wandered a little from the point. But Cavor 
certainly did not attend at all properly. He stood 



up as well as he could, putting a hand on my head 
to steady himself, which was disrespectful, and 
stood staring about him, quite devoid now of any 
fear of the moon beings. 

I tried to point out that this was dangerous for 
some reason that was not perfectly clear to me, 
but the word "dangerous" had somehow got mixed 
with "indiscreet," and. came out rather more like 
"injurious" than either; and after an attempt to 
disentangle them, I resumed my argument, address- 
ing myself principally to the unfamiliar but at- 
tentive coralline growths on either side. I felt that 
it was necessary to clear up this confusion between 
the moon and a potato at once — I wandered into a 
long parenthesis on the importance of precision of 
definition in argument. I did my best to ignore 
the fact that my bodily sensations were no longer 
agreeable. 

In some way that I have now forgotten, my mind 
was led back to projects of colonisation. "We must 
annex this moon," I said. "There must be no shilly- 
shally. This is part of the White Man's Burthen. 
Cavor— we are — hie — Satap — mean — S a t r a p s 1 
Nempire Csesar never dreamt. B'in all the news- 
papers. Cavorecia. Bedfordecia. Bedfordecia — 
hie — Limited. Mean — unlimited! Practically." 

Certainly I was intoxicated. 

I embarked upon an argument to show the infinite 
benefits our arrival would confer on the moon. I 
involved myself in a rather difficult proof that the 
arrival of Columbus was, on the whole, beneficial 
to America. I found I had forgotten the line of 
argument I had intended to pursue, and continued 
to repeat "Simlar to C'lumbus," to fill up time. 

From that point my memory of the action of that 
abominable fungus becomes confused. I remember 
vaguely that we declared our intention of standing 
no nonsense from any confounded insects, that we 
decided it ill became men to hide shamefully upon 
a mere satellite, that we equipped ourselves with 
huge armfuls of the fungus — whether for missile 
purposes or not I do not know—and, heedless of the 
stabs of the bayonet scrub, we started forth into the 
sunshine. 

Almost immediately we must have come upon the 
Selenites. There were six of them, and they were 
marching in single file over a rocky place, making 
the most remarkable piping and whining sounds. 
They all seemed to become aware of us at once, 
all instantly became silent and motionless, like 
animals, with their faces turned towards us. 

For a moment I was sobered. 

"Insects," murmured Cavor, "insects! And 
they think I'm going to crawl about on my stomach 
—on my vertebrated stomach ! 

"Stomach," he repeated slowly, as though he 
chewed the indignity. 

Then suddenly, with a shout of fury, he made 
three vast strides and leapt towards them. He 
leapt badly; he made a series of somersaults in the 
air, whirled right over them, and vanished with an 
enormous splash amidst the cactus bladders. What 
the Selenites made of this amazing, and to my mind 
undignified irruption from another planet, I have 
no means of guessing. I seem to remember the 
sight of their backs as they ran in all directions, 



but I am not sure. All those last incidents before 
oblivion came are vague and faint in my mind. I 
know I made a step to follow Cavor, and tripped 
and fell headlong among the rocks. I was, I am 
certain, suddenly and vehemently ill. I seem to 
remember a violent struggle, and being gripped 
by metallic clasps. . . . 

My next clear recollection is that we were pris- 
oners at we knew not what depths beneath the 
moon's surface; we were in darkness amidst strange 
distracting noises; our bodies were covered with 
scratches and bruises, and our heads racked with 
pain. 

CHAPTER XII 
The Selenite's Face 

I FOUND myself sitting crouched together in a 
tumultuous darkness. For a long time I could 
not understand where I was, nor how I had 
come to this perplexity. I thought of the cupboard 
into which I had been thrust at times when I was a 
child, and then of a very dark and noisy bedroom in 
which I had slept during an illness. But these 
sounds about me were not the noises I had known, 
and there was a thin flavour in the air like the 
Wind of a stable. Then I supposed we must still be 
at work upon the sphere, and that somehow I had 
got into the cellar of Cavor' s house. I remembered 
we had finished the sphere, and fancied I must still 
be in it and travelling through space. 

"Cavor," I said, "cannot we have some light?" 

There came no answer. 

"Cavor !" I insisted. 

I was answered by a groan. "My headl" I 
heard him say; "my head!" 

I attempted to press my hands to my brow, which 
ached, and discovered they were tied together. This 
startled me very much. I brought them up to my 
mouth and felt the cold smoothness of metal. They 
were chained together. I tried to separate my legs, 
and made out they were similarly fastened, and 
also that I was fastened to the ground by a much 
thicker chain about the middle of my body. 

I was more frightened than I had yet been by 
anything in all our strange experience. For a 
time I tugged silently at my bonds. "Cavor!" I 
cried out sharply. "Why am I tied? Why have 
you tied me hand and ioot?" 
. "I haven't tied you," he answered. "It's the 
Selenites." 

The Selenites! My mind hung on that for a 
space. Then my memories came back to me: the 
snowy desolation, the thawing of the air, the growth 
of the plants, our strange hopping and crawling 
among the rocks and vegetation of the crater. All 
the distress of our frantic search for the sphere re- 
turned to me. . . . Finally the opening of the great 
lid that covered the pit! 

Then as 1 strained to trace our later movements 
down to our present plight, the pain in my head 
became intolerable, I came to an insurmountable 
barrier, an obstinate blank. 

"Cavor!" 

"Yes?" 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 

Cavor, where are we? 



923 

Do you know where we 



i grunt. The lingering 



"How should I know?' 

"Are we dead?" 

"What nonsense!" 

"They've got us, then !' ; 

He made no answer but s 
traces of the poison seemed to make him°oddly 
irritable, 

"What do you mean to do?" 

"How should I know what to do?" 

"Oh, very well!" said I, and became silent. Pres- 
ently, I was roused from a stupor. "0 Lordl" I 
cried; "I wish you'd stop that buzzing!" 

We lapsed into silence again, listening to the dull 
confusion of noises like the muffled sounds of a 
street or factory that filled our ears. I could make 
nothing of it, my mind pursued first one rhythm 
and then another, and questioned it in vain. But 
after a long time I became aware of a new and 
sharper element, not mingling with the rest but 
standing out, as it were, against that cloudy back- 
ground of sound. It was a series of relatively very 
little definite sounds, tappings and rubbings, like 
a loose spray of ivy against a window or a bird 
moving about upon a box. We listened and peered 
about us, but the darkness was a velvet pall. There 
followed a noise like the subtle movement of the 
wards of a well-oiled lock. And then there appeared 
before me, hanging as it seemed in an immensity 
of black, a thin bright line. 

"Look!" whispered Cavor very softly. 

"What is it?" 

"I don't know." 

We stared. 

The thin bright line became a band, and broader 
and paler. It took upon itself the quality of a 
bluish light falling upon a white-washed wall. It 
ceased to be parallel-sided; it developed a deep 
indentation on one side. ■ I turned to remark this 
to Cavor, and was amazed to see his ear in a 
brilliant illumination — all the rest of him in 
shadow. I twisted my head round as well as my 
bonds would permit. "Cavor," I said, "it's behind!" 

His ear vanished — gave place to an eye! 

Suddenly the crack that had been admitting the 
light broadened out, and revealed itself as the space 
of an opening door. Beyond was a sapphire vista, 
and in the doorway stood a grotesque outline 
silhouetted against the glare. 

We both made convulsive efforts to turn, and 
failing, sat staring over our shoulders at this. 
My first impression was of some clumsy quadruped 
with lowered head. Then I perceived it was the 
slender, pinched body and short and extremely 
attenuated bandy legs of a Selenite, with his head 
depressed between his shoulders. He was without 
the helmet and body covering they wear when upon 
the exterior of the satellite. 

He was a blank, black figure to us, but instinc- 
tively our imaginations supplied features to his 
very human outline. I, at least, took it instantly 
that he was somewhat hunchbacked, with a high 
forehead and long features. 

He came forward three steps and paused for a 
time. His movements seemed absolutely noiseless. 



924 



AMAZING STORIES 



Then he came forward again. He walked like a 
bird, his feet fell one in front of the other. He 
stepped out of the ray of light that came through 
the doorway and it seemed as though he vanished 
altogether in the shadow. 

For a moment my eyes sought him in the wrong 
place, and then I perceived him standing facing us 
both in the full light. Only the human features I 
had attributed to him were not there at all ! 

Of course I ought to have expected that, only I 
didn't. It came to me as an absolute, for a moment 
an overwhelming shock. It seemed as though it 
wasn't a face, as though it mnst needs be a mask, 
a horror, a deformity, that would presently be dis- 
avowed or explained. There -was no nose, and the 
thing had dnll bulging eyes at the side — in the 
silhouette I had supposed they were ears. There 
were no oars. ... I have tried to draw one of these 
heads, but I cannot. There was a mouth, down- 
wardly curved, like a human mouth in a face that 
stares ferociously. . . . 

The neck on which the head was poised was 
jointed in three places, almost like the short joints 
in the leg of a crab. The joints of the limbs I 
could not see, because of the puttee-like straps in 
which they were swathed, and which formed the 
only clothing the being wore. 

There the thing was, looking at us! 

At the time my mind was taken up by the mad 
impossibility of the creature. I suppose he also 
was amazed, and with more reason, perhaps, for 
amazement than we. Only, confound him! he did 
not show jt. We did at least know what had brought 
about this meeting of incompatible creatures. 
But conceive how it would seem to decent Lon- 
doners, for example, to come upon a couple of liv- 
ing things, as big as men and absolutely unlike any 
other earthly animals, careering about among the 
sheep in Hyde Park ! It must have taken him like 
that. 

Figure ius ! We were bound hand and foot, fag- 
ged and filthy; our beards two inches long, our 
faces scratched and bloody. Cavor you must imagine 
in his knickerbockers (torn in several places by 
the bayonet scrub), his Jaeger shirt and old cricket 
cap, his wiry hair wildly disordered, a tail to every 
quarter of the heavens. In that blue light bis 
face did not look red but very dark, his lips and 
the drying blood upon my hands seemed black. 
If possible I was in a worse plight than he, on ac- 
count of the yellow fungus into which I had jumped. 
Onr jackets were unbuttoned, and our shoes had 
been taken off and lay at our feet. And we were 
sitting with our backs to this queer bluish light, 
peering at such a monster as Diiver might have in- 
vented. 

Cavor broke the silence: started to speak, went 
hoarse, and cleared his throat. Outside began a 
terrific bellowing, as if a mooncalf were in trouble. 
It ended in a shriek, and everything was still again. 

Presently the Selenite turned about, flickered 
into the shadow, stood for a moment retrospective 
at the door, and then closed it on us; and once more 
we were in that murmurous mystery of darkness 
into which we had awakened. 



CHAPTER XIII 



Mr. Cavor Makes Some Suggestions 

FOR a time neither of us spoke. To focus to- 
gether all the things we had brought upon our- 
selves, seemed beyond my mental powers. 

"They've got us," I said at last. 

"It was that fungus." 

"Well — if I hadn't taken it we should have fainted 
and starved." 

"We might have found the sphere." 

I lost my temper at his persistence, and swore to 
myself. For a time we hated one another in silence. 
I drummed with my fingers on the floor between my 
knees, and gritted the links of my fetters together. 
Presently I was forced to talk again. 

"What do you make of it, anyhow?" I asked 
humbly. 

"They are reasonable creatures — they can make 
things and do things— Those lights we saw. . . ." 

He stopped. It was clear he could make nothing 
of it. 

When he spoke again it was to confess, "After 
all, they are more human than we had a right to 
expect. I suppose " 

He stopped irritatingly. 

"Yes?" 

"I suppose, anyhow — on any planet where there 
is an intelligent animal — it will carry its brain case 
upward, and have hands, and walk erect. . . ," 

Presently he broke away in another direction. 

"We are some way in," he said. "I mean — per- 
haps a couple of thousand feet or more," 

"Why?" 

"It's cooler. And our voices are so much louder. 
That faded quality — it has altogether gone. And 
the feeling in one's ears and throat." 

I had not noted that, but I did now. 

"The air is denser. We must he some depths — 
a miie even, we may he— inside the moon." 

"We never thought of a world inside the moon." 

"No." 

"How could we?" 

"We might have done. Only One gets into 

habits of mind." 

He thought for a time. 

"Now," he said, "it seems such an" obvious thing. 

"Of course' The moon must be enormously 
cavernous, with an atmosphere within and at the 
centre of its caverns a sea. 

"One knew that the moon had a lower specific 
gravity than the earth, one knew that it had little 
air or water outside, one knew, too, that it wa3 
sister planet to the earth, and that it was unac- 
countable that it should he different in composition. 
The inference that it was hollowed out was as clear 
as day. And yet one never saw it as a fact. Kepler, 
of course " 

His voice had the interest now of a man who has 
discovered a pretty sequence of reasoning. 

"Yes," he said, "Kepler with bis stib-volvani was 
right after all." 

"I wish y«u had taken the trouble to find that 
out before we came," T said. 

He answered nothing, buzzing to himself softly, 
as he pursued his thoughts. My temper was going. 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



925 



"What do you think has become of the sphere, any- 
how?" I asked. 

"Lost," he said, like a man who answers an 
uninteresting question. 

"Among those plants?" 

"Unless they find it." 

"And then?" 

"How can I tell?" 

"Cavor," I said, with a sort of hysterical bitter- 
ness, "things look bright for my Company. . . ." 

He made no answer. 

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "Just think of all 
the trouble we took to get into this pickle ! What 
did we come for? What are we after? What was 
the moon to us or we to the moon? We wanted too 
much, we tried too much. We ought to have started 
the little things first. It was you proposed the 
moon! Those Cavorite spring blinds! I am cer- 
tain we could have worked them for terrestrial pur- 
poses. Certain 1 Did you really understand what I 
proposed? A steel cylinder^ — " 

"Rubbish I" said Cavor. 

We ceased to converse. 

For a time Cavor kept up a broken monologue 
without much help from. me. 

"If they find it," he began, "if they find it . . . 
what will they do with it? Well, that's a question. 

"It may be that's the question. They won't under- 
stand it, anyhow. If they understood that sort of 
thing they would have come long since to the earth. 
Would they? Why shouldn't they? But they 

would have sent something They couldn't 

keep their hands off such a possibility. No! But 
they will examine it. Clearly they are intelligent 
and inquisitive. They will examine it — get inside 
ilH-trifle with the studB. Off! . . . That would 
mean the moon for us for all the rest of our lives. 
Strange creatures, strange knowledge . . ." 

"As for strange knowledge " said I, and 

language failed me. 

"Look here, Bedford," said Cavor, "you came on 
this expedition of your own free will." 

"You said to me, 'Call it prospecting.' " 

"There's always risks in prospecting." 

"Especially when you do it unarmed and without 
thinking out every possibility." 

"I was so taken up with the sphere. The thing 
rushed on us, and carried us away." 

"Rushed on me, you mean." 
"Rushed on me just as much. How was / to know 
when I set to work on molecular physics that the 
business would bring me here — of all places?" 

"It's this accursed science," I cried. "It's the 
very Devil. The mediaeval priests and persecutors 
were right and the Moderns are all wrong. You 
tamper with it— and it offers you gifts. And' 
directly you take them it knocks you to pieces in 
some unexpected way. Old passions and new 
weapons — now it upsets your religion, now it up- 
sets your social ideas, now it whirls you off to 
desolation and misery!" 

"Anyhow, it's no use your quarrelling with me 
now. These creatures — these Selenites, or whatever 
we choose to call them— have got us tied hand and 
foot. In whatever temper you choose to go through 
with it you will have to go through with it. 



. . . We have experiences before us that will need 
all our coolnesa." 

He paused as if he required my assent. But I 
sat suiking. "Confound your science!" I said. 

"The problem is communication. Gestures, I 
fear, will be different. Pointing, for example. No 
creatures but men and monkeys point." 

That was too obviously wrong for me. "Pretty 
nearly every animal," I cried, "points with its 
eyes or nose." 

Cavor meditated over that. "Yes," he said at 
last, "and we don't. There's such differences — such 
differences ! 

"One might. . . . But how can I tell? There 
is speech. The sounds they make, a sort of fluting 
and piping. I don't see how we are to imitate that. 
Is it their speech, that sort of thing? They may 
have different senses, different means of com- 
munication. Of course they are minds and we are 
minds ; there must be something in common. Who 
knows how far we may not get to an understand- 
ing?" 

"The things are outside us," I said. "They're 
more different from us than the strangest animals 
on earth. They are a different clay. What is the 
good of talking like this?" 

Cavor thought. "I don't see that. Where there 
are minds they will have something similar— even 
though they have been evolved on different planets. 
Of course if it was a question of instincts, if we or 
they are no more than animals — " 

"Well, are they? They're much more like ants 
on their hind legs than human beings, and who ever 
got to any sort of understanding with ants?" 

"But these machines and clothing! No, I don't 
hold with you, Bedford. The difference is wide " 

"It's insurmountable." 

"The resemblance must bridge it. I remember 
reading a paper once by the late Professor Galton 
on the possibility of communication between the 
planets. Unhappily, at that time it did not seem 
probable that that would be of any material benefit 
to me, and I fear I did not give it the attention 1 
should have done — in view of this state of affairs. 
Yet. . . . Now, let me see ! 

"His idea was to begin with those broad truths 
that must underlie all conceivable mental existences 
and establish a basis on those. The great principles 
of geometry, to begin with. He proposed to take 
some leading proposition of Euclid's, and show by 
construction that its truth was known to us, to 
demonstrate, for example, that the angles at the 
base of an isosceles triangle are equal, and that if 
the equal sides be produced the angies on the other 
sides of the base are equal also, or that the square 
on the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle is equal 
to the sum of the squares on the two other sides. 
By demonstrating our knowledge of these things 
we should demonstrate our possession of a reason- 
able intelligence. . . . Now, suppose I . . - I 
might draw the geometrical figure with a wet finger, 
or even trace it in the air , . ." 

He fell silent. I sat meditating his words. For 
a time his wild hope of communication, of inter- 
pretation, with these weird beings held me. Then 
that angry despair that was a part of my exhaustion 



926 



AMAZING STORIES 



and physical misery resumed its sway. I perceived 
with a sudden novel vividness the extraordinary 
folly of everything I had ever done. "Ass!" I said; 
"oh, ass, unutterable ass. ... I seem to exist only 
to go about doing preposterous things. Why did 
we ever leave the thing? . . . Hopping about look- 
ing for patents and concessions in the craters of 
the moon! ... If only we had had the sense to 
fasten a handkerchief to a stick to show where we 
had left the sphere!" 

I subsided, fuming. 

"It is clear," meditated Cavor, "they are intel- 
ligent. One can hypothesize certain things. Aa 
they have not killed us at once, they must have 
ideas of mercy. Mercy! at any rate of restraint. 
Possibly of intercourse. They may meet us. And 
this apartment and the glimpses we had of its 
guardian. These fetters ! A high degree of intelli- 
gence. . . ." 

"I wish to heaven," cried I, "I'd thought even 
twice ! Plunge after plunge. First one fluky start 
and then another. It was my confidence in you! 
Why didn't I stick to my play?- That was what 
I was equal to. That was my world and the life I 
was made for. I could have finished that play. 
I'm certain ... it was a good play. I had the 
scenario as good as done. Then. . . . Conceive it! 
leaping to the moon! Practically — I've thrown my 
life away! That old woman in the inn near Canter- 
bury had better sense than " 

I looked up, and stopped in mid-sentence. The 
darkness had given place to that bluish light again. 
The door was opening, and several noiseless Sele- 
nites were coming' into the chamber. I became 
quite still, staring at their grotesque face3. 

Then suddenly my sense of disagreeable strange- 
ness changed to interest. I perceived that the 
foremost and second carried bowls. One elemental 
need at least our minds could understand in com- 
mon. They were bowls of some metal that, like our 
fetters, looked dark in that bluish light; and each 
contained a number of whitish fragments. All the 
cloudy pain and misery that oppressed me rushed 
together and took the shape of hunger. I eyed these 
bowls wolfishly, and, though it returned to me in 
dreams, at that time It seemed a small matter that 
at the end of the arms that lowered one towards me 
were not hands, but a sort of flap and thumb, like 
the end of an elephant's trunk. 

The stuff in the bowl was loose in texture, and 
whitish brown in colour — rather like lumps of some 
cold souffie\ and it smelt faintly like mushrooms. 
From a partially divided carcass of a mooncalf that 
we presently saw, I am inclined to believe it must 
have been mooncalf flesh. 

My hands were so tightly chained that I could 
barely contrive to reach the bowl; but when they 
saw the effort I made, two of them dexterously 
released one of the turns about my wrist. Their 
tentacle hands were soft and cold to my skin. I 
immediately seizsd a mouthful of the food. It 
had the same Iaxness in texture that all organic 
structures seem to have upon the moon; it tasted 
rather like a gauffer or a damp meringue, hut in 
no way was it disagreeable. I took two other 



moufchfuls. "I wanted — foo'!" said I, tearing off 
a still larger piece. . . . 

For a time we ate with an utter absence of self- 
consciousness. We ate and presently drank like 
tramps in a soup kitchen. Never before nor since 
have I been hungry to the ravenous pitch, and save 
that I have had this very experience I could never 
have believed that, a quarter of a million of miles 
out of our proper world, in utter perplexity of soul, 
surrounded, watched, touched by beings more 
grotesque and inhuman than the worst creations 
of a nightmare, it would be possible for me to eat 
in utter forgetfulness of all these things. They 
stood about us watching us, and ever and again! 
making a slight elusive twittering that stood them, 
I suppose, in the stead of speech. I did not even 
shiver at their touch. And when the first zeal of 
my feeding was over, I could note that Cavor, 
too, had been eating with the same shameless 
abandon. 

CHAPTER XIV 
Experiments in Intercourse 

WHEN at last we had made an end of eating, 
the Selenites linked our hands closely to- 
gether again, and then untwisted the 
chains about our feet and rebound them, so as to 
give us a limited freedom of movement. Then they 
unfastened the chains about our waists. To do all 
this they had to handle us freely, and ever and again 
one of their queer heads came down close to my 
face, or a soft tentacle-hand touched my head or 
neck. I don't remember that I was afraid then or 
repelled by their proximity. I think that our in- 
curable anthropomorphism made us imagine there 
were human heads inside their masks. The skin, 
like everything else, looked bluish, but that was on 
account of the light; and it was hard and shiny, 
quite in the beetle-wing fashion, not soft, or moist, 
or hairy, as a vertebrated animal's would be. Along 
the crest of the head was a low ridge of whitish 
spines running from back to front, and a much 
larger ridge curved on either side over the eyes. 
The Selenite who untied me used his mouth to 
help his hands. 

"They seem to be releasing us," said Cavor. 
"Remember we are on the moon! Make no sudden 
movements !" 

"Are you going to try that geometry?" 

"If I get a chance. But, of course, they may 
make an advance first." 

We remained passive, and the Selenites, having 
finished their arrangements, stood back from us, 
and seemed to be looking at us. I say seemed to 
be, because as their eyes were at the side and not in 
front, one had the same difficulty in determining 
the direction in which they were looking as one has 
in the case of a hen or a fish. They conversed with 
one another in their reedy tones, that seemed to me 
impossible to imitate or define. The door behind us 
opened wider, and, glancing over my shoulder, I 
saw a vague, large space heyond, in. which quite a 
little crowd of Selenites were standing. They 
a curiously miscellaneous rabble. 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



927 



"Do they want us to imitate those sounds?" I 
asked Cavor. 

"I don't think so," he said. 

"It seems to me that they are trying to make us 
understand something." 

"I can't make anything of their gestures. Do 
you notice this one, who is worrying with his head 
like a man with an uncomfortable collar?" 

"Let us shake our heads at him," 

We did that, and finding it ineffectual, attempted 
an imitation of the Selenites' movements. That 
seemed to interest them. At any rate they all set 
up the same movement. But as that seemed to 
lead to nothing, we desisted at last and so did they, 
and fell into a piping argument among themselves. 
Then one of them, shorter and very much thicker 
than the others, and with a particularly wide 
mouth, squatted down suddenly beside Cavor, and 
put hiB hands and feet in the same posture as 
Cavor's were bound, and then by a dexterous move- 
ment stood up. 

"Cavor," I shouted, "they want us to get up!" 

He stared open-mouthed. "That's it!" he said. 

And with much heaving and grunting, because 
our hands were tied together, we contrived to 
struggle to our feet. The Selenites made way for 
our elephantine heavings, and seemed to twitter 
more volubly. As soon as we were on our feet the 
thick-set Selenite came and patted each of our faces 
with his tentacles, and walked towards the open 
doorway. That also was plain enough, and we 
followed him. We saw that four of the Selenites 
standing in the doorway were much taller than the 
others, and clothed in the same manner as those 
we had seen in the crater, namely, with spiked 
round helmets and cylindrical body-cases, and that 
each of the four carried a goad with spike and 
guard made of that same dull-looking metal as the 
bowls. These four closed about us, one on either 
side of each of us, as we emerged from our chamber 
into the cavern from which the light had come. 

We did not get our impression of that cavern all 
at once. Our attention was taken up by the move- 
ments and attitudes of the Selenites immediately 
about us, and by the necessity of controlling our 
motion, lest we should startle and alarm them and 
ourselves by some excessive stride. In front of us 
was the short, thick-set being who had solved the 
problem of asking us to get up, moving with 
gestures that seemed, almost all of them, intelligible 
to us, inviting us to follow him. His spout-like 
face turned from one of us to the other with a 
quickness that was clearly interrogative. For a 
time, I say, we were taken up with these things. 

But at last the great place that formed a back- 
ground to our movements asserted itself. It be- 
came apparent that the source of much, at least, of 
the tumult of sounds which had rilled our ears ever 
since we had recovered from the stupefaction of 
the fungus was a vast mass of machinery in active 
movement, whose flying and whirling parts were 
visible indistinctly over the heads and between the 
bodies of the Selenites who walked about us. And 
not only did the web of sounds that rilled the air 
proceed from this mechanism, but also the peculiar 
blue light that irradiated the whole place. We had 



taken it as a natural thing that a subterranean 
cavern should be artificially lit, and even now, 
though the fact was patent to my eyes, I did not 
really grasp its import until presently the darkness 
came. The meaning and structure of this huge 
apparatus we saw I cannot explain, because we 
neither of us learnt what it was for or how it 
worked. One after another, big shafts of metal 
flung out and up from its centre, their heads travel- 
ling in what seemed to me to be a parabolic path; 
each dropped a sort of dangling arm as it rose to- 
wards the apex of its flight and plunged down into 
a vertical cylinder, forcing this down before it. 
About it moved the shapes of tenders, little figures 
that seemed vaguely different from the beings 
about us. As each of the three dangling arms of 
the machine plunged down, there was a clank and 
then a roaring, and out of the top of the vertical 
cylinder came pouring this incandescent substaace 
that lit the place, and ran over as milk runs over 
a boiling pot, and dripped luminously into a tank of 
light below. It was a cold blue light, a sort of 
phosphorescent glow but infinitely brighter, and 
from the tank3 into which it fell it ran in conduits 
athwart the cavern. 

Thud, thud, thud, thud, came the sweeping arms 
of this unintelligible apparatus, and the light sub- 
stance hissed and poured. At first the thing 
seemed only reasonably large and near to us, and 
then I saw how exceedingly little the Selenites upon 
it seemed, and I realized the full immensity of 
cavern and machine. I looked from this tremendous 
affair to the faces of the Selenites with a new re- 
spect. I stopped, and Cavor stopped, and stared at 
this thunderous engine. 

"But this is stupendous!" I said. "What can 
it be for?" 

Cavor's blue-lit face was full of an intelligent 

respect. "I can't dream ! Surely these beings ' 

Men could not make a thing liks that! Look at 
those arms, are they on connecting rods?" 

The thick-set Selenite had gone some paces un- 
heeded. He came back and stood between us and 
the great machine. I avoided seeing him, because 
I guessed somehow that his idea was to beckon 
us onward. He walked away in the direction he 
wished us to go, and turned and came back, and 
flicked our faces to attract our attention. 

Cavor and I looked at one another. 

"Cannot we show him we are interested in the 
machine?" I said. 

"Yes," said Cavor. "We'll try that." He turned 
to our guide and smiled, and pointed to the machine, 
and pointed again, and then to his head, and then 
to the machine. By some defect of reasoning he 
seemed to imagine that broken English might help 
these gestures. "Me look 'im," he said, "me think 
'im very much. Yes," 

His behaviour seemed to check the Selenites in 
their desire for our progress for a moment. They 
faced one another, their queer heads moved, the 
twittering voices came quick and liquid. Then one 
of them, a lean, tall creature, with a sort of mantle 
added to the puttee in which the others were 
dressed, twisted his elephant trunk of a hand about 



928 



AMAZING STORIES 



Cavor's waist, and pulled him gently to follow our 
guide, who again went on ahead. 

Cavor resisted. "We may just as well begin ex- 
plaining ourselves now. They may think we are 
new animals, a new sort of mooncalf perhaps! It 
is most important that we should show an intelli- 
gent interest from the outset," 

He began to shake his head violently. "No, no," 
he said, "me not come on one minute. Me look at 
'im." 

"Isn't there some geometrical point you might 
bring in apropos of that affair?" I suggested, as 
the Selenites conferred again. 

"Possibly a parabolic " he began. 

He yelled loudly, and leaped six feet or more! 

One of the four armed moon-men had pricked 
him with a goad! 

I turned on the goad-bearer behind me with a 
swift threatening gesture, and he started back. 
This and Cavor's sudden shout and leap clearly 
astonished all the Selenites. They receded hastily, 
facing us. For one of those moments that seem 
to last for ever, we stood in angry protest, with a 
scattered semicircle of these inhuman beings about 
us. 

"He pricked me!" said Cavor, with a catching 
of the voice. 

"I saw him," I answered. 

"Confound it!" I said to the Selenites; "we're - 
not going to stand that! What on earth do you take 
us for?" 

I glanced quickly right and left. Far away across 
the blue wilderness of cavern I saw a number of 
other Selenites running towards us; broad and 
slender they were, and one with a larger head than 
the others. The cavern spread wide and low, and 
receded in every direction into darkness. Its roof, 
I remember, seemed to bulge down as if with the 
weight of the vast thickness of rocks that prisoned 
us. There was no way out of it — no way out of it. 
Above, below, in every direction, was the unknown, 
and these inhuman creatures, with goads and 
gestures, confronting us, and we two unsupported 
men! 

CHAPTER XV 
The Giddy Bridge 

JUST for a moment that hostile pause endured. 
I suppose that both we and the Selenites did 
some very rapid thinking. My clearest impres- 
sion was that there was nothing to put my back 
against, and that we were bound to be surrounded 
and killed. The overwhelming folly of our presence 
there loomed over me in black, enormous reproach. 
Why had I ever launched myself on this mad, in- 
human expedition? 

Cavor came to my side and laid his hand on my 
arm. His pale and terriSed face was ghastly in 
the blue light. 

"We can't do anything," he said. "It's a mistake. 
They don't understand. We must go. As they 
want ua to go." 
. I looked down at him, and then at the fresh 
Selenites who were coming to help their fellows. 
"If I had my hands free — : — " 



"It's no use," he panted. "It's absolutely no use." 

"No." 

"We'll go." 

And he turned about and led the way in the 
direction that had been indicated for us. 

I followed, trying to look as subdued as possible, 
and feeling at the chains about my wrists. My 
blood was boiling. I noted nothing more of that 
cavern, though it seemed to take a long time before 
we had marched across it, or if I noted anything I 
forgot it as I saw it. My thoughts were concen- 
trated, I think, upon my chains and the Selenites, 
and particularly upon the helmeted ones with the 
goads. At first they marched parallel with us, and 
at a respectful distance, but presently they were 
overtaken by three others, and then they drew 
nearer, until they were within arm's length again. 
I winced like a beaten horse as they came near to 
us. The shorter, thicker Selenite marched at first 
on our right flank> but presently came in front of us 
again. 

How well the picture of that grouping has bitten 
into my brain ; the back of Cavor's downcast head 
just in front of me, and the dejected droop of his 
shoulders, and our guide's gaping visage, per- 
petually jerking about him, and the goad-bearers on 
either side, watchful, yet open-mouthed — a blue 
monochrome. And after all, I do remember one 
other thing besides the purely personal affair, which 
is, that a sort of gutter came presently across the 
floor of the cavern, and then ran along by the side 
of the path of rock we followed. And it was full of 
that same bright blue luminous stuff that flowed 
out of the great machine. I walked close beside 
it, and I can testify it radiated not a particle of 
heat. It was brightly shining, and yet it was neither 
wanner nor colder than anything else in the cavern. 

Clang, clang, clang, we passed right under the 
thumping levers of another vast machine, and so 
came at last to a wide tunnel, in which we could 
even hear the pad, pad, of our shoeless feet, and 
which, save for the trickling thread of blue to the 
right of us, was quite unlit. The shadows made 
gigantic travesties of our shapes and those of the 
Selenites on the irregular wall and roof of the tun- 
nel. Ever and again crystals in the walla of the 
tunnel scintillated like gems, ever and again the 
tunnel expanded into a stalactitic cavern, or gave 
off branches that vanished into darkness. 

We seemed to be marching down that tunnel for 
a long time. "Trickle, trickle," went the flowing 
light very softly, and our footfalls and their echoes 
made an irregular paddle, paddle. My mind settled 
down to the question of my chains. If I were to 
slip off one turn so, and then to .twist it so . . . 

If I tried to do it very gradually, would they see 
I was slipping my wrist out of the looser turn? 
If they did, what would they do? 

"Bedford," said Cavor, "It goes down. It keep3 
on going down." 

Hi3 remark roused me from my sullen pre- 
occupation. 

"If they wanted to kill us," he said, dropping 
back to come level with me, "there is no reason 
why they should not have done it." 

"No," I admitted, "that's true." 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



929 



"They don't understand us," he said, "they think 
we are merely strange animals, some -wild sort of 
mooncalf birth, perhaps. It will be only when they 
have observed us better that they will begin to 
think we have minds " 

"When you trace those geometrical problems," 
said I. 

"It may be that." 

We tramped on for a space. 

"You see," said Cavor, "these may be Selenitea 
of a lower class." 

"The infernal fools!" said I viciously, glancing 
at their exasperating faces. 

"If we endure what they do to us-^^" 

"We've got to endure it," said I. 

"There may be others less stupid. 'This is the 
mere outer fringe of their world. It must go down 
and down, cavern, passage, tunnel, down at last 
to the sea — hundreds of miles below." 

His words made me think of the mile or so of 
rock and tunnel that might be over our heads al- 
ready. It wa3 like a weight dropping on my 
shoulders. "Away from the sun and air," I said. 
"Even a mine half a mile deep is stuffy." 

"This is not, anyhow. It's probable Ven- 
tilation! The air would blow from the dark side 
of the moon to the sunlit, and all the carbonic acid 
gas would well out there and feed those plants. Up 
this tunnel, for example, there is quite a breeze. 
And what a world it must be. The earnest we have 
in that shaft, and those machines — ; — " 

"And the goad," I said. "Don't forget the goad!" 

He walked a little in front of me for a time. 

"Even that goad — — " he said. 

"Well?" 

"I was angry at the time. Bute=f-* It was 
perhaps necessary we should get on. They have 
different skins, and probably different nerves. They 

may not understand our objection Just as 

a being from Mars might not like our earthly habit 
of nudging " 

"They'd better be careful how they nudge me." 

"And about that geometry. After all, their way 
is a way of understanding, too. They begin with 
the elements of life and not of thought. Food. 
Compulsion. Pain. They strike at fundamentals." 

"There's no doubt about that," I said. 

He went on to talk of the enormous and wonderful 
world into which we were being taken. I realised 
slowly from his tone, that even now he was not 
absolutely in despair at the prospect of going ever 
deeper into this inhuman planet-burrow. His mind 
ran on machines and invention, to the exclusion of 
a thousand dark things that beset me. It wasn't 
that he intended to make any use of these things, he 
simply wanted to know them. 

"After all," he said, "this is a tremendous oc- 
casion. It is the meeting of two worlds! What are 
we going to see? Think of what is below us here." 

"We shan't see much if the light isn't better," 
I remarked. 

"This is only the outer crust. Down below — =s 
On this scale — - There will be everything. Do 
you notice how different they seem one from an- 
other? The story we shall take back!" 

"Some rare sort of animal," I said, "might com' 



fort himself in that way while they were bringing 
him to the Zoo, ... It doesn't follow that we are 
going to be shown all these things." 

"When they find we have reasonable minds," 
said Cavor, "they will want to learu about the 
earth. Even if they have no generous emotions, 
they will teach in order to learn. . . . And the 
things they must know! The unanticipated things!" 

He went on to speculate on the possibility of 
their knowing things he had never hoped to learn 
on earth, speculating in that way, with a raw wound 
from that goad already in his skin! Much that 
he said I forget, for my attention was drawn to 
the fact that the tunnel along which we had been 
marching wa3 opening out wider and wider. We 
seemed, from the feeling of the air, to be going out 
into a huge space. But how big the space might 
really be we could not tell, because it was unlit. 
Our little stream of light ran in a dwindling thread 
and vanished far ahead. Presently the rocky wall3 
had vanished altogether on either hand. There was 
nothing to be seen but the path in front of us and , 
the trickling hurrying rivulet of blue phosphores- 
cence. The figures of Cavor and the guiding Sele- 
nite marched before me, the sides of their legs 
and heads that were towards the rivulet were clear 
and bright blue, their darkened sides, now that the 
reflection of the tunnel wall no longer lit them, 
merged indistinguishably in the darkness beyond. 

And soon I perceived that we were approaching 
a declivity of some sort, because the little blue 
stream dipped suddenly out of sight. 

In another moment, as it seemed, we had reached 
the edge. The shining stream gave one meander of 
hesitation and then rushed over. It fell to a depth 
at which the sound of its descent was absolutely 
lost to us. Far below was a bluish glow, a sort 
of blue mist — at an infinite distance below. And 
the darkness the stream dropped out of became 
utterly void and black, save that athing like a plank 
projected from the edge of the cliff and stretched 
out and faded and vanished altogether. There was 
a warm air blowing up out of the gulf. 

For a moment I and Cavor stood as near the 
edge as we dared, peering into a blue-tinged pro- 
fundity. And then our guide was pulling at my 

Then he left me, and walked to the end of that 
plank and stepped upon it, looking back. Then 
when he perceived we watched him, he turned 
about and went on along it, walking as surely as 
though he was on firm earth. For a moment his 
form was distinct, then he became a blue blur, and 
then vanished into the obscurity. I became aware 
of some vague shape looming darkly out of the 
black. 

There was a pause. "Surely — ; — !" said Cavor, 

One of the other Selenites walked a few paces 
out upon the plank, and turned and looked back at 
us unconcernedly. The others stood ready to fol- 
low after us. Our guide's expectant figure reap- 
peared. He was returning to see why we had not 
advanced. 

"What i3 that beyond there?" I asked. 

"I can't see." 

"We can't cross this at any price," said I. 



930 



'AMAZING STORIES 



"I could not go three steps on it," said Cavor, 
"even with my hands free." 

We looked at each other's drawn faces in blank 
consternation. 

"They can't know what it is to be giddy!" said 
Cavor. 

"It's quite impossible for us to walk that plank." 

"I don't believe they see as we do. I've been 
watching them. I wonder if they know this is 
simply blackness for us. How can we make them 
understand?" 

"Anyhow, we must make them understand." 

I think we said these things with a vague half 
hope the Selenites might somehow understand. I 
knew quite clearly that all that was needed was 
an explanation. Then as I saw their face3, I 
realised that an explanation was impossible. Just 
here it was that our resemblances were not going to 
bridge our differences. Weli, I wasn't going to walk 
the plank, anyhow. I slipped my wrist very quickly 
out of the coil of chain that was loose, and then 
began to twist my wrists in opposite directions. I 
was standing nearest to the bridge, and as I did 
this two of the Selenites laid hold of me, and pulled 
me gently towards it. 

I shook my head violently. "No go," I said, 
"no use. You don't understand." 

Another Selenite added Ms compulsion. I wa3 
forced to step forward. 

"I've got an idea," said Cavor; but I knew his 
ideas. 

"Look here I" I exclaimed to the Selenites. 
"Steady onl It's all very well for you " 

I sprang round upon my heel. I burst out into 
curses. For one of the armed Selenites had stabbed 
me behind with his goad. 

I wrenched my wrists free from the little tentacles 
that held them. I turned on the goad-bearer. 
"Confound you!" I cried. "I've warned you of 
that. What on earth do you think I'm made of, 
to stick that into me? If you touch me again—; — " 

By way of answer he pricked me forthwith. 

I heard Cavor'a voice in alarm and entreaty. 
Even then I think he wanted to compromise with 
these creatures. "I say, Bedford," he cried, "I 
know a way!" But the sting of that second stab 
seemed to set free some pent-up reserve of energy 
in my being. Instantly the link of the wrist-chain 
snapped, and with it snapped all considerations 
that had held us unresisting in the hands of these 
moon creatures. For that second, at least, I was 
mad with fear and anger. I took no thought of 
consequences. I hit straight out at the face of the 
thing with the goad. The chain was twisted round 
my fist. . . . 

There came another of these heastly surprises 
of which the moon world is full. 

My mailed hand seemed to go clean through him. 
He smashed like — like some softish sort of sweet 
with liquid in it ! He broke right in I He squelched 
and splashed. It was like hitting a damp toadstool. 
The flimsy body went spinning a dozen yards, and 
fell with a flabby impact. I was astonished. I 
was incredulous that any living thing could be so 
flimsy. For an instant I could have believed the 
whole thing a dream. 



Then it had become real and imminent again. 
Neither Cavor nor the other Selenites seemed to 
have done anything from the time when I had 
turned about to the time when the dead Selenite 
hit the ground. Every one stood back from us two, 
every one alert. That arrest seemed to last at 
least a second after the Selenite was down. Every 
one must have been taking the thing in. I seem 
to remember myself standing with my arm half 
retracted, trying also to take it in. "What next?" 
clamoured my brain; "what next?" Then in a 
moment every one wa3 moving ! 

I perceived we must get our chains loose, and 
that before we could do this these Selenites had 
to be beaten off. I faced towards the group of 
the three goad-bearers. Instantly one threw his 
goad at me. It swished over my head, and I sup- 
pose went flying into the abyss behind. 

I leaped right at him with all my might as the 
goad flew over me. He turned to run as I jumped, 
and I bore him to the ground, came down right 
upon him, and slipped upon his smashed body and 
fell. He seemed to wriggle under my foot. 

I came into a sitting position, and on every hand 
the blue backs of the Selenites were receding into 
the darkness. I bent a link by main force and 
untwisted the chain that had hampered me about 
the ankles, and sprang to my feet, with the chain in 
my hand. Another goad, flung javelin-wise, whistled 
by me, and I made a rush towards the darkness 
out of which it had come. Then I turned back 
towards Cavor, who was still standing in the light 
of the rivulet near the gulf convulsively busy with 
his wrists, and at the same time jabbering nonsense 
about his idea. 

"Come onl" I cried. 

"My hands!" he answered. 

Then, realising that I dared not run back to him, 
because my ill-calculated steps might carry me 
over the edge, he came shuffling towards me, with 
his hands held out before him. 

I gripped his chains at once to unfasten them. 

"Where are they?" he panted. 

"Run away. They'll come back. They're throw- 
ing things! Which way shall we go?" 

"By the light. To that tunneL Eh?" 

"Yes," said I, and his bands were free. 

I dropped on my knees and fell to work on his 
ankle bonds. Whack came something — I know not 
what — and splashed the livid streamlet into drops 
about us. Far away. on our right a piping and 
whistling began. 

I whipped the chain off his feet, and put it in 
his hand, "Hit with that!" 1 said, and without 
waiting for an answer, set off in big bounds along 
the path by which we had come. I had a nasty 
sort of feeling that these things could jump out of 
the darkness on to my hack. I heard the impact 
of his leaps come following after me. 

We ran in vast strides. But that running, you 
must understand, was an altogether different thing 
from any running on earth. On earth one leaps 
and almost instantly hits the ground again, but 
on the moon, because of its weaker pull, one shot 
through the air for several seconds before one came 
to earth. In spite of our violent hurry this gave an 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



931 



effect of long pauses, pauses in which one might 
have counted seven or eight. "Step," and one 
soared off! All sorts of questions ran through my 
mind: "Where are the Selenites? What will they 
do? Shall we ever get to that tunnel? Is Cavor 
far behind? Are they likely to cut him off?" Then 
whack, stride, and off again for another step. 

I saw a Selenite running in front of me, his legs 
going exactly as a man's would go on earth, saw 
him glance over his shoulder, and heard him shriek 
as he ran aside out of my way into the darkness. 
He was, I think, our guide, but I am not sure. Then 
in another vast stride the walls of rock had come 
into view on either hand, and in two more strides 
I was in the tunnel, and tempering my pace to its 
low roof. I went on to a bend, then stopped and 
turned back, and plug, plug, plug, Cavor came into 
view, splashing into the stream of blue light at 
every stride, and grew larger and blundered into 
me. We stood clutching each other. For a moment, 
at least, we had shaken off our captors and were 
alone. 

We were both very much out of breath. We 
spoke in panting, broken sentences. 

"You've spoilt it all!" panted Cavor. 

"Nonsense," I cried. "It was that or death!" 

"What are we to do?" 

"Hide." 

"How can we?" 

"It's dark enough." 

"But where?" 

"Up one of these side caverns." 

"And then?" 

"Think." 

"Right — come on." 

We strode on, and presently came to a radiating 
dark cavern. Cavor was in front. He hesitated, 
and chose a black mouth that seemed to promise 
good hiding. He went towards it and turned. 

"Ifs dark," he said. 

"Your legs and feet will light us. You're wet 
with that luminous stuff." 

"But " 

A tumult of sounds, and in particular a sound 
like a clanging gong, advancing up the main tunnel, 
became audible. It was horribly suggestive of a 
tumultuous pursuit. We made a bolt for the unlit 
side cavern forthwith. As we ran along it our way 
was lit by the irradiation of Cavor's legs. "It's 
lucky," I panted, "they took off our boots, or we 
should fill this place with clatter." On we rushed, 
taking as small steps as we could to avoid striking 
the roof of the cavern. After a time we seemed 
to be gaining on the uproar. It became muffled, it 
dwindled, it died away. 

I stopped and looked back, and I heard the pad, 
pad of Cavor's feet receding. Then he stopped also. 
"Bedford," he whispered; "there's a sort of light 
in front of us." 

I looked, and at first could see nothing. Then I 
perceived his head and shoulders dimly outlined 
against a fainter darkness, I saw, also, that this 
mitigation of the darkness was not blue, as all the 
other light within the moon had been, but a pallid 
gray, a very vague, faint white, the daylight colour. 
Cavor noted thi3 difference as soon, or sooner, than 



I did, and I think too, that it filled him with much 
the same wild hope. 

"Bedford," he whispered, and his voice trembled. 
"That light — it is possible " 

He did not dare to say the thing he hoped. Then 
came a pause. Suddenly I knew by the sound of 
his feet that be was striding towards that pallor. 
I followed him with a beating heart. 

CHHAPTEE XVI 
Points of View 

THE light grew stronger as we advanced. In 
a little time it was nearly as strong as the 
phosphorescence on Cavor's legs. Our tunnel 
was expanding into a cavern, and this new light 
was at the farther end of it. I perceived something 
that set my hopes leaping and bounding. 

"Cavor," I said, "it comes from above I I am 
certain it comes from above I" 

He made no answer, but hurried on. 

Indisputably it was a gray light, a silvery light. 

In another moment we were beneath it. It 
filtered down through a chink in the walls of the 
cavern, and as I stared up, drip, came a drop of 
water upon my face. I started and stood aside — 
drip, fell another drop quite audibly on the rocky 
floor. 

"Cavor," I said, "if one of us lifts the other, he 
can reach that crack!" 

"I'll lift you," he said, and incontinently hoisted 
me as though I was a baby. 

I thrust an arm into the crack, and just at my 
finger tips found a little ledge by which I could 
hold. I could see the white light was very much 
brighter now. I pulled myself up by two fingers 
with scarcely an effort, though on earth I weigh 
twelve stone, reached to a still higher corner of 
rock, and so got my feet on the narrow ledge. I 
stood up and searched up the rocks with my fingers; 
the cleft broadened out upwardly. "It's climb- 
able," I said to Cavor. "Can you jump up to my 
hand if I hold it down to you?" 

I wedged myself between the side3 of the cleft, 
rested knee and foot on the ledge, and extended a 
hand, I could not see Cavor, but I could hear the 
rustle of his movements as he crouched to spring. 
Then whack and he was hanging to my arm — and 
no heavier than a kitten! I lugged him up until 
he had a hand on my ledge, and could release me. 

"Confound it!" I said, "any one could be a 
mountaineer on the moon;" and so set myself in 
earnest to the climhing. For a few minutes I 
clambered steadily, and then I looked up again. 
The cleft opened out steadily, and the light was 
brighter. Only 

It was not daylight after all! 

In another moment I could see what it was, and 
at the sight I could have beaten my head against 
the rocks with disappointment. For I beheld 
simply an irregularly sloping open space, and all 
over its slanting floor stood a forest of little club- 
shaped fungi, each shining gloriously with that 
pinkish silvery light. For a moment I stared at 
their soft radiance, then sprang forward and up- 
ward among them. I plucked up half a dozen and 



932 



AMAZING STORIES 



flung them against the rocks, and then sat down, 
laughing bitterly, as Cavor's ruddy face came into 
view. 

"Ifs phosphorescence again!" I said. "No need 
to hurry. Sit down and make yourself at home." 
And as he spluttered over our disappointment, 
I began to lob more of these growths into the cleft. 

"I thought it was daylight," he said. 

"Daylight!" cried I. "Daybreak, sunset, clouds, 
and windy skies! Shall we ever see such things 
again?" 

As I spoke, a little picture of our world seemed 
to rise before me, bright and little and clear, like 
the background of s^me old Italian picture. "The 
sky that changes, and the sea that changes, and the 
hills and the green trees and the towns and cities 
shining in the sun. Think of a wet roof at sunset, 
Cavor! Think of the windows of a westward 
house!" He made no answer. 

"Here we are burrowing in this beastly world 
that isn't a world, with its inky ocean hidden in 
some abominable blackness below, and outside that 
torrid day and that death stillness of night. And 
all those things that are chasing us now, beastly 
men of leather— insect men, that come out of a 
nightmare! After all, they're right! What business 
have we here smashing them and disturbing their 
world! For all we know the whole planet is up 
and after us already. In a minute we may hear 
them whimpering, and their gongs going. What are 
we to do? Where are we to go? Here we are as 
comfortable as snakes from Jamrach's loose in a 
Surbiton villa!" 

"It was your fault," said Cavor. 

"My fault!" I shouted. "Good Lord!" 

"I had an idea!" 

"Curse your ideas!" 

"If we had refused to budge — ^" 

"Under these goads?" 

"Yes. They would have carried us!" 

"Over that bridge?" 

"Yes. They must have carried us from outside." 

"I'd rather be carried by a fly across a ceiling." 

"Good Heavens!" 

I resumed my destruction of the fungi. Then 
suddenly I saw something that struck me even 
then. 

"Cavor," I said, "these chains are of gold!" 

He was thinking intently, with his hands gripping 
his cheeks. He turned his head slowly and stared 
at me, and when I had repeated my words, at the 
twisted chain about his right hand. "So they are," 
he said, "so they are." His face lost its transitory 
interest even as he looked. He hesitated for a 
moment, then went on with his interrupted medita- 
tion. I sat for a space puzzling over the fact that 
I had only just observed this, until I considered the 
blue light in which we had been, and which had 
taken al! the colour out of the metal. And from 
that discovery I also started upon a train of thought 
that carried me wide and far. I forgot that I had 
just been asking what business we had in the 
moon. Gold — — 

It was Cavor who spoke first. "It seema to me 
that there are two courses open t« us." 

"Well?" 



"Either we can attempt to make our way — fight 
our way if necessary — out to the exterior again, 
and then hunt for our sphere until we find it, or- 
the cold of the night comes to kill us, or else " 

He paused. "Yes?" I said, though I knew what 
was coming. 

"We might attempt once more to establish some 
sort of understanding with the minds of the people 
in the moon." 

"So far as I'm concerned — it's the first." 

"I doubt." 

"I don't." 

"You see," said Cavor, "I do not think we can 
judge the Selenites by what we have seen of them. 
Their central world, their civilised world will be 
far below in the profounder caverns about their 
sea. This region of the crust in which we are is an 
outlying district, a pastoral region. At any rate, 
that is my interpretation. These Selenites we have 
seen may be only the equivalent of cowboys and 
engine-tenders. Their use of goads — in all proba- 
bility mooncalf goads — the lack of imagination they 
show in expecting us to be able to do just what they 
can do, their indisputable brutality, all seem to 
point to something of that sort. But if we en- 
dured " 

"Neither of us could endure a six-inch plank 
across the bottomless pit for very long." 

"No," said Cavor; "but then " 

"I won't," I said. 

He discovered a new line of possibilities. "Well, 
suppose we got ourselves into some corner, where 
we could defend ourselves against these hinds and 
labourers. If, for example, we could hold out for 
a week or so, it is probable that the news of our 
appearance would filter down to the more intelligent 
and populous parts — r=" 

"If they exist." 

"They must exist, or whence came those tre- 
mendous machines?" 

"That's possible, but it's the worst of the two 
chances." 

"We might write up inscriptions on walls " 

"How do we know their eyes would see the sort 
of marks we made?" 

"If we cut them — ■ — " 

"That's possible, of course." 

I took up a new thread of thought. "After all," 
I said, "I suppose you don't think these Selenites 
so infinitely wiser than men." 

"They must know a lot more — ox at least a lot of 
different things." 

"Yes, but " I hesitated. 

"I think you'll quite admit, Cavor, that you're 
rather an exceptional man." 

"How?" 

"Well, you — you're a rather lonely man — have 
been, that is. You haven't married." 

"Never wanted to. But why ?" 

"And you never grew richer than you happened 
to be?" 

"Never wanted that either," 

"You've just rooted after knowledge?" 

"Well, a certain curiosity is natural " 

"You think so. That's just it. You think every 
other mind wants to know. I remember once, when 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



933 



I asked you why you conducted all these researches, 
you said you wanted your F.R.S., and to have the 
stuff called Cavorite, and things like that. You 
know perfectly well you didn't do it for that; 
but at the time my question took you by surprise, 
and you felt you ought to have something to look 
like a motive. Really you conducted researches be- 
cause you had to. It's your twist." 

"Perhaps it is " 

"It isn't one man in a million has that twist. 
Most men want — well, various things, but very few 
want knowledge for its own sake. / don't, I know 
perfectly well. Now, these Selenites seem to be a 
driving, busy sort of being, but how do you know 
that even the most intelligent will take an "interest 
in us or our world? I don't believe they'll even know 
we have a world. They never come out at night 
— they'd freeze if they did. They've probably never 
seen any heavenly body at all except the blazing 
sun. How are they to know there is another world? 
What does it matter to them if they do? Well, 
even if they have had a glimpse of a few stars, or 
even of the earth crescent, what of that? Why 
should people living inside a planet trouble to ob- 
serve that sort of thing? Men wouldn't have done 
it except for the seasons and sailing; why should 
the moon people? .... 

"Well, suppose there are a few philosophers like 
yourself. They are just the very Selenites who'll 
never have heard of our existence. Suppose a Sele- 
nite had dropped on the earth when you were at 
Lympne, you'd have been the last man in the world 
to hear he had come. You never read a newspaper! 
You see the chances against you. Well, it's for 
these chances we're sitting here doing nothing while 
precious time is flying, I tell you we've got into 
a fix. We've come unarmed, we've lost our sphere, 
we've got no food, we've shown ourselves to the 
Selenites, and made them think we're strange, 
strong, dangerous animals; and unless these Sele- 
nites are perfect fools, they'll set about now and 
bunt us till they find us, and when they find us 
they'll try to take us if they can, and kill us if they 
can't, and that's the end of the matter. If they 
take us, they'll probably kill us, through some mis- 
understanding. After we're done for, they may dis- 
cuss us perhaps, but we shan't get much fun out of 
that." 

"Go on." 

"On the other hand, here's gold knocking about 
like cast iron at home. If only we can get some of 
it back, if only we can find our sphere again before 
they do, and get back, then — r— " 

"Yes?" 

"We might put the thing on a sounder footing. 
Come back in a bigger sphere with guns." 

"Good Lord!" cried Cavor, as though that was 
horrible. 

I shied another luminous fungus down the cleft. 

"Look here, Cavor," I said, "I've half the voting 
power anyhow in this affair, and this is a case for 
a practical man. I'm a practical man, and you are 
not. I'm not going to trust to Selenites and 
geometrical diagrams again, if I can help it. . . . 
That's all. Get back. Drop all this secrecy — or 
moat of it. And come again." 



He reflected. "When I came to the moon," he 
said, "I ought to have come alone." 

"The question before the meeting," I said, "is 
how to get back to the earthly sphere." 

For a time we nursed our knees in silence. Then 
he seemed to decide for my reasons. 

"I think," he said, "one can get data. It is 
clear that while the sun is on this side of the moon 
the air will be blowing through this planet sponge 
from the dark side hither. On this side, at any rate, 
the air will be expanding and flowing out of the 
moon caverns into the craters. . . . Very well, 
there's a draught here." 

"So there is." 

"And that means that this is not a dead end; 
somewhere behind us this cleft goes on and up. 
The draught is blowing up, and that is the way we 
have to go. If we try to get up any sort of 
chimney or gully there is, we shall not only get out 
of these passages where they are hunting for 

"But suppose the gully is too narrow?" 
"We'll come down again." 
"San!" I said suddenly; "what's that?" 
We listened. At first it was an indistinct mur- 
mur, and then one picked out the clang of a gong. 
"They must think we are mooncalves," said I, "to 
he frightened at that." 

"They're coming along that passage," said 
Cavor. 
"They must be." , 

"They'll not think of the cleft. They'll go past," 
I listened again for a space. "This time," I 
whispered, "they're likely to have some sort of 



Then suddenly I sprang to my feet. "Good hea- 
vens, Cavor!" I cried. "But they willl They'll 
see the fungi I have been pitching down. 
They'll !" 

I didn't finish my sentence. I turned about and 
made a leap over the fungus tops towards the upper 
end of the cavity. I saw that the space turned up- 
ward and became a draughty cleft again, ascending 
to impenetrable darkness. I was about to clamber 
up into this, and then with a happy inspiration 
turned back. 

"What are you doing?" asked Cavor. 

"Go on!" said I, and went back and got two of 
the shining fungi, and putting one into the brea3t 
pocket of my flannel jacket, so that it stuck out 
to light our climbing, went back with the other for 
Cavor. The noise of the Selenites was now so loud 
that it seemed they must be already beneath the 
cleft. But it might be they would have difficulty 
in clambering into it, or might hesitate to ascend 
it against our possible resistance. At any rate, we 
now had the comforting knowledge of the enormous 
muscular superiority our birth in another planet 
gave us. In another minute I was clambering with 
gigantic vigour after Cavor's blue-lit heels. 

CHAPTER XVII 
The Fight in the Cave of the Moon Butchers 

I DO not know how far we clambered before we 
came to the grating. It may be we ascended 
only, a few hundred feet; but at the time it 



934 



AMAZING STORIES 



seemed to me we might have hauled and jammed 
and hopped and wedged ourselves through a mile 
or more of vertical ascent. Whenever I recall that 
time, there come3 into my head the heavy clank of 
our golden chains that folio-wed every movement. 
Very soon my knuckles and knees were raw, and 
I had a bruise on one cheek. After a time the first 
violence of our efforts diminished, and our move- 
ments became more deliberate and less painful. The 
noise of the pursuing Selenites had died away al- 
together. It seemed almost as though they had 
not traced us up the crack after all, in spite of 
the tell-tale heap of broken fungi, that must have 
lain beneath it. At times the eleft narrowed so 
much that we could scarce squeeze up it; at other 
times it expanded into great cavities, studded with 
prickly crystals, or thickly beset with dull, shining 
fungoid pimples. Sometimes it twisted spirally, 
and at other times slanted down nearly to the 
horizontal direction. Ever and again there was 
the intermittent drip and trickle of water by us. 
Once or twice it seemed to us that small living 
things had rustled out of- our reach, but what they 
were we never saw. They may have been venomous 
beasts for all I know, but they did us no harm, and 
we were now tuned to a pitch when a weird creep- 
ing thing more or less mattered little. And at last, 
far above, came the familiar bluish light again, 
and then we saw that it filtered through a grating 
that barred our way. 

We whispered as we pointed this out to one 
another, and became more and more cautious in 
our ascent. Presently we were close under the 
grating, and by pressing my face against its bara 
I could see a limited portion of the cavern beyond. 
It was clearly a large space, and lit no doubt by 
some rivulet of the same blue light that we had 
seen flow from the beating machinery. An inter- 
mittent trickle of water dropped ever and again 
between the bars near my face. 

My first endeavour was naturally to see what 
might be upon the floor of the cavern, but our 
grating lay in a depression whose rim hid all this 
from our eyes. Our foiled attention then fell back 
upon the suggestion of the various sounds we heard, 
and presently my eye caught a number of faint 
shadows that played across the dim roof far over- 
head. 

Indisputably there were several Selenites, per- 
haps a considerable number, in this space, for we 
could hear the noises of their intercourse, and faint 
sounds that I identified as their footfalls. There 
was also a succession of regularly repeated sounds 
— chid, chid, chid — which began and ceased, sug- 
gestive of a knife or spade hacking at some soft 
substance. Then came a clank as if of chains, a 
whistle and a rumble as of a truck running over a 
hollowed place, and then again that chid, chid, chid 
resumed. The shadows told of shapes that moved 
quickly and rhythmically, in agreement with that 
regular sound, and rested when it ceased. 

We put our heads close together, and began to 
discuss these things in noiseless whispers. 

"They are occupied," I said, "they are occupied 
in some way." 

"Yes." 



"They're not seeking us, or thinking about us." 

"Perhaps they have not heard of us." 

"Those others are hunting about below. If 
suddenly we appeared here " 

We looked at one another. 

"There might be a chance to parley," said Cavor. 

"No," I said. "Not as we are." 

For a space we remained, each occupied by his 
own thoughts. 

Chid, chid, chid went the chopping, and the 
shadows moved to and fro. 

I looked at the grating. "It's flimsy," I said. 
"We might bend two of the bars and crawl 
through." 

We wasted a little time in vague discussion. 
■Then I took one of the bars in both hands, and 
got my feet up against the rock until they were 
almost on a level with my head, and so thrust 
against the bar. It bent so suddenly that I almost 
slipped. I clambered about and bent the adjacent 
bar in the opposite direction, and then took the 
luminous fungus from my pocket and dropped it 
down the fissure. 

"Don't do anything hastily," whispered Cavor, 
as I twisted myself up through the opening I had 
enlarged, I had a glimpse of busy figures as I 
came through the grating, and immediately bent 
down, so that the rim of the depression in which 
the grating lay hid me from their eyes, and so lay 
flaf^ signalling advice to Cavor as he also prepared 
to come through. Presently we were side by side 
in the depression, peering over the edge at the 
cavern and its occupants. 

It was a much larger cavern than we had sup- 
posed from our first glimpse of it, and we looked 
up from the lowest portion of its sloping floor. It 
widened out as it receded from us, and its roof 
came down and hid the remoter portion altogether. 
And lying in a line along its length, vanishing at 
last far away in that tremendous perspective, were 
a number of huge shapes, huge pallid hulls, upon 
which the Selenites were busy. At first they seemed 
big white cylinders of vague import. Then I noted 
the heads upon them lying towards us, eyeless and 
skinless like the heads of sheep at a butcher's, and 
perceived they were the carcasses of mooncalves 
being cut up, much as the crew of a whaler might 
cut up a moored whale. They were cutting off the 
flesh in strips, and on some of the farther trunks 
the white ribs were showing. It was the sound of 
their hatchets that made that chid, chid. Some 
distance away a thing like a trolley cable, drawn 
and loaded with chunks of lax meat, was running 
up the slope of the cavern floor. This enormous 
long avenue of hulls that were destined to be food, 
gave us a sense of the vast populousness of the 
moon-world second only to the effect of our first 
'glimpse down the shaft. 

It seemed to me at first that the Selenites must 
be standing on trestle-supported planks, 1 and then 
I saw that the planks and supports and their 
hatchets were really of the same leaden hue as my 



1 1 do not remember seeing anj 


■ wooden things oa the moon; doors. 


iblea, everything corresponding 




E metal, and I believe- fur the i 


nost part of gold, which as 3 metal 


nil Id, of course, naturally rccom 


mend iteclf— other things being equal 


-on account of the case in i 
urability. 


writing it, and its toughness and 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



935 



fetters had seemed before white light came to hear 
on them. A number of very thick-looking crow- 
bars lay about the floor, and had apparently assisted 
to turn the dead mooncalf over on its side. They 
were perhaps six feet Jong, with shaped handles, 
very tempting-looking weapons. The whole place 
was lit by three transverse streams of the blue 
fluid. 

We lay for a long time noting all these things in 
silence. "Well?" said Cavor at last. 

I crouched lower and turned to him. I had come 
upon a brilliant idea. "Unless they lowered those 
bodies by a crane," I said, "we must be nearer the 
surface than I thought." 

"Why?" 

"The mooncalf doesn't hop, and it hasn't got 
wings." 

He peered over the edge of the hollow again. 
"I wonder now . . ," he began. "After all, we 
have never gone far from the surface " 

I stopped him by a grip on his arm. I had heard 
a noise from the cleft below usl 

We twisted ourselves about, and lay as still as 
death with every sense alert. In a little while I 
did not doubt that something wa3 quietly ascend- 
ing the cleft. Very slowly and quite noiselessly I 
assured myself of a good grip on my chain, and 
waited for that something to appear. 

"Just look at those chaps with the hatchets again," 
I said. 

"They're all right," said Cavor. 

I took a sort of provisional aim at the gap in the 
grating. I could hear now quite distinctly the soft 
twittering of the ascending Selenites, the dab of 
their hands against the rocks, and the falling of dust 
from their grips as they clambered. 

Then I could see that there was something mov- 
ing dimly in the blackness below the grating, but 
what it might be I could not distinguish. The whole 
thing seemed to hang fire just for a moment — then 
smash ! I had sprung to my feet, struck savagely 
at something that had flashed out at me. It was 
the keen point of a spear. I have thought 3ince 
that its length in the narrowness of the cleft must 
have prevented its being sloped to reach me. Any- 
how, it shot out from the grating like the tongue 
of a snake, and missed and flew back and flashed 
again. But the second time I snatched and caught 
it, and wrenched it away, but not before another 
had darted ineffectually at me. 

I shouted with triumph as I felt the hold of the 
Selenite resist my pull for a moment and. give, and 
then I was jabbing down through the bars, amidst 
squeals from the darkness, and Cavor had snapped 
off the other spear, and was leaping and flourishing 
it beside me, and malting inefficient jabs. Clang, 
clang, came up through the grating, and then an 
axe hurtled through the air and whacked against 
the rocks beyond, to remind me of the ileshers at 
the carcasses. up the cavern. 

I turned, and they were all coming towards us 
in open order waving their axes. They were short, 
thick, little beggars, with long arms, strikingly 
different from the ones we had seen before. If they 
had not heard of us before, they must have realised 
the situation with incredible swiftness. I stared 



at them for a moment, spear in hand. "Guard that 
grating, Cavor," I cried, howled to intimidate them, 
and rushed to meet them. Two of them missed 
with their hatchets, and the rest fled incontinently. 
Then the two also were sprinting away up the 
cavern, with hands clenched and heads down. I 
never saw men run like them! 

I knew the spear I had was no good for me. It 
was thin and flimsy, only effectual for a thrust, and 
too long for a quick recover. So I only chased 
the Selenites as far as the first carcass, and stopped 
there and picked up one of the crowbars that were 
lying about. It felt comfortingly heavy, and equal 
to smashing any number of Selenites. I threw away 
my spear, and picked up a second crowbar for the 
other hand. I felt five times better than I had 
with the spear. I shook the two threateningly at 
the Selenites, who had come to a halt in a little 
crowd far away up the cavern, and then turned 
about to look at Cavor. 

He was leaping from side to side of the grating, 
making threatening jabs with his broken spear. 
That was all right. It would keep the Selenites 
down— for a time at any rate. I looked up the 
cavern again. What on earth were we going to do 
now? 

We were cornered in a sort of way already. But 
these butchers up the cavern had been surprised, 
they were probably scared, and they had no special 
weapons, only those little hatchets of theirs. And 
that way lay escape. Their sturdy little forms—; 
ever so much shorter and thicker than the moon- 
calf herders — were scattered up the slope in a way 
that was eloquent of indecision. I had the moral 
advantage of a mad bull in a street. But for all 
that, there seemed a tremendous crowd of them. 
Very probably there was. Those Selenites down 
the cleft had certainly some infernally long spears. 
It might be they had other surprises for ua. . . . 
But, confound it! if we charged up the cave we 
should let them up behind us, and if we didn't those 
little brutes up the cave would probably get rein- 
forced. Heaven alone knew what tremendous 
engines of warfare — guns, bombs, terrestrial tor- 
pedoes—this unknown world below our feet, this 
vaster world of which we had only pricked the outer 
cuticle, might not presently send up to our destruc- 
tion. It became clear that the only thing to do was 
to charge ! It became clearer as the legs of a num- 
ber of fresh Selenites appeared running down the 
cavern towards us. 

"Bedford!" cried Cavor, and behold! he was half- 
way between me and the grating. 

"Go back!" I cried. "What are you doing — —' 

"They've got — it's like a gun!" 

'And struggling in the grating between those de- 
fensive spears appeared the head and shoulders of 
a singularly lean and angular Selenite, bearing some 
complicated apparatus. 

I realised Cavor's utter incapacity for the fight 
we had in hand. For a moment I hesitated. Then 
I rushed past him whirling my crowbars, and shout- 
ing to confound the aim of the Selenite. He was 
aiming in the queerest way with the thing against 
his stomach, "Chuzz!" The thing wasn't a gun; 



936 



AMAZING STORIES 



it went off like a cross-bow more, and dropped me 
in the middle of a leap. 

I didn't fall down, I simply came down a little 
shorter than I should have done if I hadn't been 
hit, and from the feel of my shoulder the thing 
might have tapped me and glanced off. Then my 
left hand hit the shaft again and I perceived there 
was a sort of spear sticking half through my 
shoulder. The moment after I got home with the 
crowbar in my right hand, and hit the Selenite fair 
and square. He collapsed — he crushed and crumpled 
— his head smashed like an egg. 

I dropped a crowbar, pulled the spear out of my 
shoulder, and began to jab it down the grating into 
the darkness. At each jab came a shriek and 
twitter. Finally I hurled the spear down upon 
them with all my strength, leapt up, picked up 
the crowbar again, and started for the multitude 
up the cavern. 

"Bedford!" cried Cavor. "Bedford!" as I flew 
past him. 

I seem to remember his footsteps coming on 
behind me. 

Step, leap . , . whack, step, leap. , . . Each 
leap seemed to last ages. With each, the cave 
opened out and the number of Selenites visible 
increased. At first they seemed all running about 
like ants in a disturbed ant-hill, one or two waving 
hatchets and coming to meet me, more running 
away, some bolting sideways into the avenue of 
carcasses, then presently others came in sight 
carrying spears, and then others. I saw a most 
extraordinary thing, all hands and feet, bolting for 
cover. The cavern grew darker farther up. Flick! 
something flew over my head. Flick ! As I soared 
in mid-stride I saw a spear bit and quiver in one of 
the carcasses to my left. Then, as I came down, 
one hit the ground before me, and I heard the 
remote chuzz! with which their things were fired. 
Flick, flick! for a moment it was a shower. They 
were volleying! 

I stopped dead. 

I don't think I thought clearly then. I seem to 
remember a kind of stereotyped phrase running 
through my mind: "Zone of fire, seek cover!" I 
know I made a dash for the space between two of 
the carcasses, and stood there panting and feeling 
very wicked. 

I looked round for Cavor, and for a moment it 
seemed as if he had vanished from the world. Then 
he came out of the darkness between the row of 
the carcasses and the rocky wall of the cavern. 
I saw his little face, dark and blue, and shining 
with perspiration and emotion. 

He was saying something, but what it was I did 
not heed. I had realised that we might work from 
mooncalf to mooncalf up the cave until we were 
near enough to charge home. It was charge or 
nothing. "Come on!" I said, and led the way. 

"Bedford !" he cried unavailingly. 

My mind was busy as we went up that narrow 
alley between the dead bodies and the wall of the 
cavern. The rocks curved about — they could not 
enfilade us. Though in that narrow space we could 
not leap, yet with our earth-born strength we were 
still able to go very much faster than the Olenites. 



I reckoned we should presently come right among 
them. Once we were on them, they would be nearly 
as formidable as black beetles. Only ! — there would 
first of all be a volley. I thought of a stratagem. 
I whipped off my flannel jacket as I ran. 

"Bedford!" panted Cavor behind me. 

I glanced back, "What?" said I. 

He was pointing upward over the carcasses. 

"White light!" he said. "White light againl" 

I looked, and it was even so, a faint white ghost 
of twilight in the remoter cavern roof. That seemed 
to give me double strength. 

"Keep close," I said. A flat, long Selenite dashed 
out of darkness, and squealed and fled. I halted, 
and stopped Cavor with my hand. I hung my jacket 
over my crowbar, ducked round the next carcass, 
dropped jacket and crowbar, showed myself, and 
darted back. 

"Chuzz— flick," just one arrow came. We were 
close on the Selenites, and they were standing in a 
crowd, broad, short, and tall together, with a little 
battery of their shooting implements pointing down 
the cave. Three or four other arrows followed the 
first, and then their fire ceased. 

I stuck out my head, and escaped by a hair's- 
breadth. This time I drew a dozen shots or more, 
and heard the Selenites shouting and twittering as 
if with excitement as they shot. I picked up jacket 
and crowbar again. 

"Now!" said I, and thrust out the jacket. 

"Chuzz-zz-zz-zz ! Chuzz ! In an instant my 
jacket had grown a thick beard of arrows, and they 
were quivering all over the carcass behind us. 
Instantly I slipped the crowbar out of the jacket, 
dropped the jacket — for all I know to the contrary 
it is lying up there in the moon now — and rushed 
out upon them. 

For a minute perhaps it was massacre. I was too 
fierce to discriminate, and the Selenites were prob- 
ably too scared to fight. At any rate they made 
no sort of fight against me. I saw scarlet, as the 
saying is. I remember I seemed to be wading 
among those leathery, thin things as a man wades 
through tall grass, mowing and hitting, first right, 
then left; smash, smash. Little drops of moisture 
flew about. I trod on things that crushed and piped 
and went slippery. The crowd seemed to open and 
close and flow like water. They seemed to have no 
combined plan whatever. Spears flew about me. I was 
grazed over the ear by one. I was stabbed once in 
the arm and once in the cheek, but I only found that 
out afterwards, when the blood had had time to 
run and cool and feel wet. 

What Cavor did I do not know. For a space 
it seemed that this fighting had lasted for an age, 
and must needs go on for ever. Then suddenly it 
was all over, and there was nothing to be seen but 
the backs of heads bobbing up and down as their 
owners ran in all directions. ... I seemed alto- 
gether unhurt. I ran forward some paces, shouting, 
then turned about. I was amazed. 

I had come right through them in vast flying 
strides, they were all behind me, and running hither 
and thither to hide. 

I felt an enormous astonishment at the evapora, 
tio" of the great fight into which I had hurled 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



937 



myself, and not a little of exultation. It did not 
seem to me that I had discovered the Selenites were 
unexpectedly flimsy, but that I was unexpectedly 
strong. I laughed stupidly. This fantastic moon! 

I glanced for a moment at the smashed and 
writhing bodies that were scattered over the cavern 
floor, with a vague idea of further violence, then 
hurried on after Cavor, 

CHAPTER XVIII 
In the Sunlight 

PRESENTLY we saw that the cavern before us 
opened on a hazy void. In another moment 
we had emerged upon a sort of slanting 
gallery, that projected into a vast circular space, a 
huge cylindrical pit running vertically up and down. 
Round this pit the slanting gallery ran without 
any parapet or protection for a turn and a half, and 
then plunged high above into the rock again. Some- 
how it reminded me then of one of those spiral 
turns of the railway through the Saint Gothard. 
It was all tremendously huge. I can scarcely hope 
to convey to you the Titanic proportion of all that 
place, the Titanic effect of it. Our eyes followed up 
the vast declivity of the pit wall, and overhead and 
far above we beheld a round opening set with faint 
stars, and half of the lip about it well-nigh blinding 
with the white light of the sun. At that we cried 
aloud simultaneously. 

"Come on !" I said, leading the way. 

"But there?" said Cavor, and very carefully 
stepped nearer the edge of the gallery. I followed 
his example, and craned forward and looked down, 
but I was dazzled by that gleam of light above, and 
I could see only a bottomless darkness with spectral 
patches of crimson and purple floating therein. Yet 
if I could not see, I could hear. Out of this dark- 
ness came a sound, a sound like the angry hum 
one can hear if one puts one's ear outside a hive of 
bees, a sound out of that enormous hollow, it may 
be, four miles beneath our feet. . . . 

For a moment I listened, then tightened my grip 
on my crowbar, and led the way up the gallery. 

"This must be the shaft we looked down upon," 
said Cavor. "Under that Hd." 

"And below there, is where we saw the lights." 

"The lights!" said he. "Yes — the lights of the 
world that now we shall never see." 

"We'll come back," I said, for now we had escaped 
so much I was rashly sanguine that we should re- 
cover the sphere. 

His answer I did not catch. 

"Eh?" I asked. 

"It doesn't matter," he answered, and we hurried 
on in silence. 

I suppose that slanting lateral way was four or 
five miles long, allowing for its curvature, and it 
ascended at a slope that would have made it almost 
impossibly steep on earth, but which one strode up 
easily under lunar conditions. We saw only two 
Selenites during all that portion of our flight, and 
directly they became aware of us they ran head- 
long. It was clear that the knowledge of our 
strength and violence had reached them. Our way 
to the exterior was unexpectedly plain. The spiral 



gallery straightened into a steeply ascendent tunnel, 
its floor bearing abundant traces of the mooncalves, 
and so straight and short in proportion to its vast 
arch, that no part of it was absolutely dark. Almost 
immediately it began to lighten, and then far off 
and high up, and quite blindingly brilliant, appeared 
its opening on the exterior, a slope of Alpine steep- 
ness surmounted by a crest of bayonet shrub, tall 
and broken down now, and dry and dead, in spiky 
silhouette against the sun. 

And it is strange that we men, to whom this very 
vegetation had seemed so weird and horrible a 
little time ago, should now behold it with the 
emotion a home-coming exile might feel at sight of 
his native land. We welcomed even the rareness 
of the air that made us pant as we ran, and which 
rendered speaking no longer the easy thing that it 
had been, but an effort to make oneself heard. 
Larger grew the sunlit circle above us, and larger, 
and all the nearer tunnel sank into a rim of indis- 
tinguishable black. We saw the dead bayonet 
shrub no longer with any touch of green in it, but 
brown and dry and thick, and the shadow of its 
upper branches high out of sight made a densely 
interlaced pattern upon the tumbled rocks. And 
at the immediate mouth of the tunnel was a wide 
trampled space where the mooncalves had come 
and gone. 

We came out upon this space at last into a light 
and heat that hit and pressed upon us. We traversed 
the exposed area painfully, and clambered up a 
slope among the scrub stems, and sat down at last 
panting in a high place beneath the shadow of a 
mass of twisted lava. Even in the shade the rock 
felt hot. 

The air was intensely hot, and we were in great 
physical discomfort, but for all that we were no 
longer in a nightmare. We seemed to have come 
to our own province again, beneath the stars. All 
the fear and stress of our flight through the dim 
passages and fissures below had fallen from us. 
That last fight had filled us with an enormous con- 
fidence in ourselves so far as the Selenites were 
concerned. We looked back almost incredulously 
at the black opening from which we had just 
emerged. Down there it was, in a blue glow that 
now in our memories seemed the next thing to 
absolute darkness, we had met with things like 
mad mockeries of men, helmet-headed creatures, 
and had walked in fear before them, and had 
submitted to them until we could submit no longer. 
And behold, they had smashed like wax and 
scattered like chaff, and fled and vanished like the 
creatures of a dream! 

I rubbed my eyes, doubting whether we had not 
slept and dreamt these things by reason of the 
fungus we had eaten, and suddenly discovered the 
blood upon my face, and then that my shirt was 
sticking painfully to my shoulder and arm. 

"Confound it!" I said, gauging my injuries with 
an investigatory hand, and suddenly that distant 
tunnel mouth became, as it were, a watching eye. 

"Cavor!" I said; "what are they going to do 
now? And what are we going to do?" 

He shook his head, with his eyes fixed upon the 
tunnel. "How can one tell what they will do?" 



938 



AMAZING STORIES 



"It depends on what they think of us, and I 
don't see how we can begin to guess that. And it 
depends upon what they have in reserve. It's as 
you say, Cavor, we have touched the merest outside 
of this world. They may have alf sorts of things 
inside here. Even with those shooting things they 
might make it bad for us. . . . 

"Yet after all," I said, "even if we don't find the 
sphere at once, there is a chance for us. We might 
hold out. Even through the night. We might go 
down there again and make a fight for it." 

I stared about me with speculative eyes. The 
character of the scenery had altered altogether by 
reason of the enormous growth and subsequent 
drying of the scrub. The crest on which we sat 
was high, and commanded a wide prospect of the 
crater landscape, and we saw it now al! sere and 
dry in the late autumn of the lunar afternoon. Ris- 
ing one behind the other were long slopes and fields 
of trampled brown where the mooncalves had 
pastured, and far away in the full blaze of the sun 
a drove of them basked slumberously, scattered 
shapes, each with a blot of shadow against it like 
sheep on the side of a down. But never a sign of a 
Selenite was to be seen. Whether they had fled on 
our emergence from the interior passages, or 
whether they were accustomed to retire after driv- 
ing out the mooncalves, I cannot guess. At the 
time I believed the former wa3 the case. 

"If we were to set fire to all this stuff," I said, 
"we might find the sphere among the ashes." 

Cavor did not seem to hear me. He was peering 
under his hand at the stars, that still, in spite of 
the intense sunlight, were abundantly visible in 
the sky? "How long do you think we have been 
here?" he asked at last. 

"Been where?" 

"On the moon." 

"Two earthly days, perhaps." 

"More nearly ten. Do you know, the sun is 
past its zenith, and sinking in the west. In four 
days' time or less it will be night." 

"But — we've only eaten once!" 

"I know that. And But there are the 

stars!" 

"But why should time seem different because we 
are on a smaller planet?" 

"I don't know. There it is!" 

"How does one tell time?" 

"Hunger — fatigue — all those things are different. 
Everything ia different — everything. To me it 
seems that since first we came out of the sphere 
has been only a question of hours — long hours — at 
most." 

"Ten days," I said; "that leaves — ■ — " I looked 
up at the sun for a moment, and then saw that it 
was halfway from zenith to the western edge of 
things. "Four days! . . . Cavor, we mustn't sit 
here and dream. How do yon think we may begin?" 

I stood up. "We must get a fixed point we can 
recognize — we might hoist a flag, or a handkerchief, 
or something*— and quarter the ground, and work 
round that," 

He stood up beside me. 

"Yes," he said, "there is nothing for it but to 



hunt the sphere. Nothing. We may find it— 
certainly we may find it. And if not -" 

"We must keep on looking." 

He looked this way and that, glanced up at the 
sky and down at the tunnel, and astonished me 
by a sudden gesture of impatience. "Oh! but we 
have done foolishly! To have come to this pass! 
Think how it might have been, and the things we 
might have done!" 

"We may do something yet." 

"Never the thing we might have done. Here 
below our feet is a world. Think of what that 
world must be! Think of that machine we saw, 
and the lid and the shaft! They were just remote 
outlying things, and those creatures we have seen 
and fought with no more than ignorant peasants, 
dwellers in the outskirts, yokels and labourers half 
akin to brutes. Down below! Caverns beneath 
caverns, tunnels, structures, ways. ... It must 
open out, and be greater and wider and more 
populous as one descends. Assuredly. Right down 
at last to the central sea that washes round the core 
of the moon. Think of its inky waters under the 
spare lights — if, indeed, their eyes need lights! 
Think of the cascading tributaries pouring down 
their channels to feed it! Think of the tides upon 
its surface, and the rush and swirl of its ebb and 
flow! Perhaps they have ships that go upon it, 
perhaps down there are mighty cities and swarm- 
ing ways, and wisdom and order passing the wit 
of man. And we may die here upon it, and never 
see the masters who must be — ruling over these 
things ! We may freeze and die here, and the air 
will freeze and thaw upon us, and then — ! Then 
they will come upon us, come on our stiff and silent 
bodies, and find the sphere we cannot find, and they 
will understand at last too late all the thought and 
effort that ended here in vain I" 

His voice for all that speech sounded like the 
voice of some one heard in a telephone, weak and 
far away. 

"But the darkness," I said. 

"One might get over that," 

"How ?" 

"I don't know. How am I to know? One might 

carry a torch, one might have a lamp . The 

others — might understand." 

He stood for a moment with his hands held down 
and a rueful face, staring out over the waste that 
defied him. Then with a gesture of renunciation 
he turned towards me with proposals for the 
systematic hunting of the sphere. 

"We can return," I said. 
y He looked about him. "First of all we shall have 
to get to earth." 

"We could bring back lamps to carry and climb- 
ing irons, and a hundred necessary things." 

"Yes," he said. 

"We can take back an earnest of success in thi3 
gold." 

He looked at my golden crowbars, and said noth- 
ing for a space. He stood with his hands clasped 
behind his back, staring across the crater. At last 
he sighed and spoke. "It was I found the way here, 
but to find a way isn't always to be master of a 
way. If I take my secret back to earth, what will 



THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON 



939 



I do not see how I can keep my secret for 
a year, for even a part of a year. Sooner or later 
it must come out, even if other men rediscover it. 
And then. . . . Governments and powers will 
struggle to get hither, they will fight against one 
another, and against these moon people; it will only 
spread warfare and multiply the occasions of war. 
In a little while, in a very little while, if I tell my 
secret, this planet to its deepest galleries will be 
strewn with human dead. Other things are doubt- 
ful, but that is certain. ... It is not as though 
man had any use for the moon. What good would 
the moon be to men? Even of their own planet 
what have they made hut a battle-ground and 
theatre of infinite folly? Small as his world is, 
and short as his time, he has stiil in his little life 
down there far more than he can do. No! Science 
has toiled too long forging weapons for fools to use. 
It is time she held her hand. Let him find it out 
for himself again — in a thousand years' time." 

"There are methods of secrecy," I said. 

He looked up at me and smiled. "After all," he 
said, "why should one worry? There is little chance 
of our finding the sphere, and down below things 
are brewing. It's simply the human habit of hop- 
ing till we die that makes us think of return. Our 
troubles are only beginning. We have shown these 
moon folk violence, we have given them a taste of 
our quality, and our chances are about as good as 
a tiger's that has got loose and killed a man in 
Hyde Park. The news of us must be running down 
from gallery to gallery, down towards the central 
parts. '. . . No sane beings will ever let us take 
that sphere back to earth after so much as they 
have seen of us." 

"We aren't improving our chances," said I, "by 
sitting here." 

We stood up side by side. 

"After all," he said, "we must separate. We must 
stick up a handkerchief on these tail spikes here and 
fasten it firmly, and from this as a centre we must 
work over the crater. You must go westward, 
moving out in semicircles to and fro towards the 
setting sun. You must move first with your 
shadow on your right until it is at right angles with 
the direction of your handkerchief, and then with 
your shadow on your left. And I will do the same to 
End of 



the east. We will look into every gully, examine 
every skerry of rocks; we will do all we can to 
find my sphere. If we see the Selenites we will 
hide from them as well as we can. For drink we 
must take snow, and if we feel the need of food, 
we must kill a mooncalf if we can, and eat such 
flesh as it has — raw — and so each will go his own 
way." 

"And if one of U3 comes upon the sphere?" 

"He must come back to the white handkerchief, 
and stand by it and signal to the other." 

"And if neither ?" 

Cavor glanced up at the sun. "We go on seeking 
until the night and cold overtake us." 

"Suppose the Selenites have found the sphere and 
hidden it?" 

He shrugged his shoulders. 

"Or if presently they come hunting us?" 

He made no answer. 

"You had better take a club," I said. 

He shook his head, and stared away from me 
across the waste. 

But for a moment he did not start. He looked 
round at me shyly, hesitated. "Au revoir," he said. 

I felt an odd stab of emotion. A sense of how 
we had galled each other, and particularly how I 
must have galled him, came to me. "Confound it," 
thought I, "we might have done better!" I was 
on the point of asking him to shake hands— for 
that, somehow, was how I felt just then — when 
he put his feet together and leapt away from me 
towards the north. He seemed to drift through the 
air as a dead leaf would do, fell lightly, and leapt 
again. I stood for a moment watching him, then 
faced westward reluctantly, pulled myself together, 
and with something of the feeling of a man who 
leaps into icy water, selected a leaping point, and 
plunged forward to explore my solitary half of the 
moon world. I dropped rather clumsily among 
rocks, stood up and looked about me, clambered 
on to a rocky slab, and leapt again. . . . 

When presently I looked for Cavor he was hidden 
from my eyes, but the handkerchief showed out 
bravely on its headland, white in the blaze of the 

I determined not to lose sight of that handker- 
chief whatever might betide. 

Part II 







"The Land That Time Forgo t" 








By EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS 




1 tt CIENTIFICTION has often been called dry and un- the entire book. Thrills, suspense, and breath-raking 
M\ Gs5t interesting, although it la Instructive. But in the superb seem to fairly tumble over each other. Tho editor 
m 33* a, r ory u qf " T1,c , La ? d , Thal - Time For e. ot " we have one Bl0Iy through in two days, and since has reread it at 
S '— ** of the most forceful stories ever wriltcn. For sheer «■_. .1 „.„•„,», ™Jii r 1, ,-. „,,hi>li.wihle thai 
H downrirht thrlfla adventure, and cood science, the book is hard timesat one time or anotner. it is unoeucvame uiat 
B to match The creator of Tarzon has no pear when it comes *°« ,a b e packed full of S3 many elimajrea and halr-r 
H to maintaining your interest in almost every lino throughout plaits as appear In this story. 


situations 
read the 
east four 



" %%)r.Wilese?.JBreuer" 




940 



THE MAN WITH THE STRANGE HEAD 



941 




MAN in a gray hat stood half way down 
the corridor, smoking a cigar and ap- 
parently interested in my knocking and 
waiting. I rapped again on the door of 
Number 216 and waited some more, but 
all remained silent. Finally my observer ap- 
proached me. 

"I don't believe it will do any good," he said 
"I've just been trying it. I would like to talk to 
someone who is connected with Anstruther. Are 
you 1" 

"Only this." I handed him a letter out of my 
pocket without comment, as one is apt to do with 
a thing that has caused one no little wonderment: 
"Dear Doctor:" it said succinctly: "I have 
been under the care of Dr. Faubourg who has 
recently died. I would like to have you take 
charge of me on a contract basis, and keep me 
well, instead of waiting till I get sick. I can 
pay you enough to make you independent, but 
in return for that, you will have to accept an 
astonishing revelation concerning me, and keep 
it to yourself. If this seems acceptable to you, 
call on me at 9 o'clock, Wednesday evening. 
Josiah Anstruther, Room 216, Cornhusker 
Hotel." 

"If you have time," said the man in the gray hat, 
handing me back the letter, "come with me. My 
name is Jerry Stoner, and I make a sort of living 
writing for magazines. I live in 316, just above 
here." 

"By some curious architectural accident," he con- 
tinued, as we reached his room, "that ventilator 
there enables me to hear minutely everything that 
goes on in the room below. I haven't ever said any- 
thing about it during the several months that I've 
lived here, partly because it does not disturb me, and 
partly because it has begun to pique my curiosity — 
a writer can confess to that, can he not? The man 
below is quiet and orderly, but seems to work a 
good deal on some sort of clockwork; I can hear it 
whirring and clicking quite often. But listen 
now!" 

Standing within a cou- 
ple of feet of the opening 
which was covered with 
an iron grill, I could hear 
footsteps. They were re- 
gular, and would decrease 
in intensity as the person 
walked away from the 
ventilator opening below, ■MHMi^BB^B^B 
and increase again as he 

approached it; were interrupted for a moment as 
he probably stepped on a rug; and were shorter 
for two or three counts, no doubt as he turned at 
the end of the room. This was repeated in a reg- 
ular rhythm as long as I listened. 
"Well?" I said. 

"You perceive nothing strange about that, I sup- 
pose," said Jerry Stoner. "But if you had listened 
all day long to just exactly that you would begin to 
wonder. That is the way he was going on when I 
awoke this morning; I was out from 10 to 11 this 
forenoon. The rest of the time I have been writing 
steadily, with an occasional stretch at the window, 



H 



ERH ■ 



and all of the time I have heard steadily what you 
hear now, without interruption or change. It's 
getting on my nerves. 

"I have called him on the phone, and have rung 
it on and off for twenty minutes; I could hear his 
bell through the ventilator, but he pays no attention 
to it. So, a while ago I tried to call on him. Do you 
know him?" 

"I know who he is," I replied, "but do not remem- 
ber ever having met him." 

"If you had ever met him you would remember. 
He has a queer head. I made my curiosity con- 
cerning the sounds from his room an excuse to cul- 
tivate his acquaintance. The cultivation was diffi- 
cult. He is courteous, but seemed afraid of me." 

We agreed that there was not much that we could 
do about it. I gave up trying to keep my appoint- 
ment, told Stoner that I was glad I had met him, 
and went home. The next morning at seven he had 
me on the telephone. 

"Are you still interested?" he asked, and his 
voice was nervous. "That bird's been at it all 
night. Come and help me talk to the hotel manage- 
ment." I needed no urging. 

I found Beesley, the hotel manager, with Stoner; 
he was from St. Louis, and looked French. 

"He can do it if he wants to," he said, shrugging 
his shoulders comically; "unless you complain of it 
as a disturbance." 

"It isn't that," said Stoner; "there must be some- 
thing wrong with the man." 

"Some form of insanity " I suggested; 

"or a compulsion neurosis." 

"That's what I'll be pretty soon," Stoner said. 
s "He is a queer gink anyway. As far as I have been 
able to find out, he has no close friends. There is 
something about his appearance that makes me: 
shiver; his face i3 so wrinkled and droopy, and yet 
he sails about the streets with an unusually grace- 
ful and vigorous step. Loan me your pass key; I 
think I'm as close a friend of his as anyone." 

Beesley lent the key, but Stoner was back in a 
few minutes, shaking his head. Beesley was expect- 
ing that; he told us that 
j— ■BWBMB^iB^n when the hotel was built, 
Anstruther had the doors 
made of steel with special 
bars, at his own expense, 
and the windows shut- 
tered, as though he were 
afraid for his life. 
Mi ^ MM ^ MBaM l "His rooms would be as 
' hard to break into as a 
fort," Beesley said as he left us ; "and thus far we 
do not have sufficient reason for wrecking the 
hotel." ■ 

"Look here!" I said to Stoner; "it will take me a 
couple of hours to hunt up the stuff and string up 
a periscope; it's an old trick I learned as a Boy 
Scout." 

Between us we had it up in about that time ; a 
radio aerial mast clamped on the window sill with 
mirrors at the top and bottom, and a telescope at 
our end of it, gave us a good view of the room be- 
low us. It was a sort of living room made by throw- 
ing together two of the regular sized hotel rooms. 



<f the most fantastic bits of scientific- 
i we hove ever read. This is a story so strange 
and amazing thai :'. -iiil keep y/>;tr interest until the end. 
You arc not permitted to know until at. the very end 
what it is really all about, and you will follow the pro- 
ceedings With keen interest. 



942 



AMAZING STORIES 



Anstruther was walking across it diagonally, dis- 
appearing from our field of view at the further end, 
and coming back again. His head hung forward on 
his chest with a ghastly limpness. He was a big, 
well-built man, with a vigorous stride. Always it 
was -the same path. He avoided the small table in 
the middle each time with exactly the same sort of 
side step and swing. His head bumped limply as he 
turned near the window and started back across the 
room. For two hours we watched him in shivering 
fascination, during which he walked with the same 
hideous uniformity. 

"That makes thirty hours of this," said Stoner. 
"Wouldn't you say that there was something 
wrong ?" 

We tried another consultation with the hotel 
manager. As a physician, I advised that something 
be done; that he be put in a hospital or something. 
I was met with another shrug. 

"How will you get him? I still do not see suf- 
ficient cause for destroying the hotel company's 
property. It will take dynamite to get at him." 

He agreed, however, to a consultation with the" 
police, and in response to our telephone call, the 
great, genial chief, Peter John Smith was soon sit- 
ting with us. He advised us against breaking in. 

"A man has a right to walk that way if he wants 
to," he said. "Here's this fellow in the papers who 
played the piano for 49 hours, and the police didn't 
stop him; and in Germany they practice making 
public speeches for 18 hours at a stretch. And 
there was this Olympic dancing fad some months 
ago, where a couple danced for 57 hours." 

"It doesn't look right to me," I said, shaking my 
head. "There seems to be something wrong with 
the man's appearance ; some uncanny disease of the 
nervous system— Lord knows I've never heard of 
anything that resembles it 1" 

We decided to keep a constant watch. I had to 
spend a little time on my patients, but Stoner and 
the chief stayed, and agreed to call me if occasion 
arose. I peeped through the periscope at the walk- 
ing man several times during the next twenty-four 
hours; and it was always exactly the same, the 
hanging, bumping head, the uniformity of his 
course, the uncanny, machine-like exactitude of his 
movements. I spent an hour at a time with my eye 
at the telescope studying his movements for some 
variation, but was unable to be certain of any. 
That afternoon I looked up my neurology texts, 
but found no clues. The next day at 4 o'clock in 
the afternoon, after not less than 55 hours of it, I 
was there with Stoner to see the end of it; Chief 
Peter John Smith was out. 

As we watched, we saw that he moved more and 
more slowly, but with otherwise identical motions. 
It had the effect of the slowed motion pictures of 
dancers or athletes; or it seemed like some curious 
dream; for as we watched, the sound of the steps 
through the ventilator also slowed and weakened. 
Then we saw him sway a little, and totter, as 
though his balance were imperfect. He swayed a 
few times and fell sidewise on the floor; we could 
see one leg in the field of our periscope moving 
slowly with the same movements as in walking, a 



slow, dizzy sort of motion. In five more minutes 
he was quite still. 

The Chief was up in a few moments in response 
to our telephone call. 

"Now we've got to break in," he said. Eeesley 
shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Stoner 
came to the rescue of the hotel property. 

"A small man could go down this ventilator. 
This grill can be unscrewed, and the lower one can 
be knocked out with a hammer; it is cast-iron." 

Beesley was gone like a flash, and soon returned 
with one of his window-washers, who was small and 
wiry, and also a rope and hammer. We took off the 
grill and held the rope as the man crawled in. He 
shouted to us as he hit the bottom. The air drew 
strongly downwards, but the blows of his hammer 
on the grill came up to us. We hurried down- 
stairs. Not a sound came through the door of 216, 
and we waited for some minutes. Then there was a 
rattle of bars and the door opened, and a gust of 
cold wind struck us, with a putrid odor that made 
us gulp. The man had evidently run to open a 
window before coming to the door. 

Anstruther lay on his side, with one leg straight 
and the other extended forward as in a stride; his 
face was livid, sunken, hideous. Stoner gave him 
a glance, and then scouted around the room — look- 
ing for the machinery he had been hearing, but 
finding none. The chief and I also went over the 
rooms, but they were just conventional rooms, 
rather colorless and lacking in personality. The 
chief called an undertaker and also the coroner, 
and arranged for a post-mortem examination. I 
received permission to notify a number of pro- 
fessional colleagues; I wanted some of them to 
share in the investigation of this unusual case with 
me. As I was leaving, I could not help noting the 
astonished gasps of the undertaker's assistants as 
they lifted the body; but they were apparently too 
well trained to say anything. 

That evening, a dozen physicians gathered around 
the figure covered with a white sheet on the table 
in the center of the undertaker's work room. Stoner 
was there; a writer may be anywhere he chooses. 
The coroner was preparing to draw back the sheet. 

"The usual medical history is lacking in this 
case," he said. "Perhaps an account by Dr. B 
or his author friend, of the curious circumtances 
connected with the death of this man, may take its 
place." 

"I can tell a good deal," said Stoner; "and I 
think it will bear directly on what you find when 
you open him up, even though it is not technical 
medical stuff. Do you care to hear it?" 

"Tell it! Go on! Let's have it!" 

"I have lived above him in the hotel for several 
months," Stoner began. "He struck me as a curious 
person, and as I do some writing, all mankind is 
my legitimate field for study. I tried to find out 
all I. could about him. 

"He has an office in the Little Building, and 
did a rather curious business. . He dealt in vases 
and statuary, book-ends and chimes, and things you 
put around in rooms to make them look artistic. He 
had men out buying the stuff, and others selling 
it, all by personal contact and on a very exclusive 



THE MAN WITH THE STRANGE HEAD 



943 



basis. He kept the stock in a warehouse near the 
Rock Island tracks where they pass the Ball Park; 
I do not believe that he ever saw any of it. He 
just sat in the office and signed papers, and the 
other fellows made the money; and apparently they 
made a lot of it, for he has swung some big financial 
deals in this town. 

"I often met him in the lobby or the elevator. 
He was a big, vigorous man and walked with an un- 
usually graceful step and an appearance of strength 
and vitality. His eyes seemed to light up with re- 
cognition when he saw me, but in my company he 
was always formal and reserved. For such a 
vigorous looking man, his voice was singularly 
cracked and feeble, and his head gave an impression 
of being rather small for him, and his face old 
and wrinkled. 

"He seemed fairly well known about the city. At 
the Eastridge Club they told me that he plays golf 
occasionally and excellently, and is a graceful 
dancer, though somehow not a popular partner. He 
was seen frequently at the Y. M. C. A. bowling 
alleys, and played with an uncanny skill. Men 
loved to see him bowl for his cleverness with the 
balls, but wished he were not so formally courteous, 
and did not wear such an expression of complete 
happiness over his victories. Eridley, manager of 
Rudge & Guenael'a book department, was the oldest 
friend of his that I could find, and he gave me some 
interesting information. They went to school to- 
gether, and Anstruther was poor in health as well as 
in finances. Twenty-five years ago, during the hungry 
and miserable years after his graduation from the 
University, Eridley remembered him as saying; 

" 'My brain needs a body to work with. If I had 
physical strength, I could do anything. If I find 
a fellow who can give it to me, I'll make him rich!' 

"Eridley also remembers that he was sensitive 
because girls did not like his debilitated physique. 
He seems to have found health later, though I can 
find no one who remembers how or when. About 
ten years ago he came back from Europe where 
he had been for several years, in Paris, Eridley 
thinks; and for several years after this, a French- 
man lived with him. The city directory of that time 
has him living in the big stone house at 13th and 
"G" streets. I went up there to look around, and 
found it a double house, Dr. Faubourg having oc- 
cupied the other half. The present caretaker has 
been there ever since Anstruther lived in the house, 
and she says that his French companion must have 
been some sort of an engineer, and that the two 
must have been working on an invention, from 
the sounds she heard and the materials they 
had about. Some three or four years ago the 
Frenchman and the machinery vanished, and An- 
struther moved to the Cornhusker Hotel. Also at 
about this time, Dr. Faubourg retired from the 
practice of medicine. He must have been about 
50 years old, and too healthy and vigorous to be 
retiring on account of old age or ill health. 

"Apparently Anstruther never married. His pri- 
vate life was quite obscure, but he appeared much 
in public. He wa3 always very courtly and polite 
to the ladies. Outside his business he. took a great 
interest in Y. M. C. A. and Eoy. Scout camps, in the 



National Guard, and in fact in everything that stood 
for an outdoor, physical life, and promoted health. 
In spite of his oddity he was quite a hero with the 
small boys, especially since the time of his radium 
hold-up. This is intimately connected with the story 
of his radium speculation that caused such a sen- 
sation in financial circles a couple of years ago. 

"About that time, the announcement appeared 
of the discovery of new uses for radium ; a way had 
been found to accelerate its splitting and to derive 
power from it. Its price went up, and it promised 
to become a scarce article on the market. Anstruther 
had never been known to speculate, nor to tamper 
with sensational things like oil and helium; but on 
this occasion he seemed to go into a panic. He 
cashed in on a lot of securities and caused a small 
panic in the city, as he was quite wealthy and had 
especially large amounts of money in the building- 
loan business. The newspapers told of how he had 
bought a hundred thousand dollars worth of radium, 
which was to be delivered right here in Lincoln — 
a curious method of speculating, the editors volun- 
teered, 

"It arrived by express one day, and Anstruther 
rode the express wagon with the driver to the sta- 
tion. I found the driver and he told the story 
of the hold-up at 8th and 'P' streets at eleven 
o'clock at night. A Ford car drove up beside them, 
from which a man pointed a pistol at them and 
ordered them to stop. The driver stopped. 

" 'Come across with the radium!' shouted the big 
black bulk in the Ford, climbing upon the express 
wagon. Anstruther's fist shot out like a flash, of 
iightning aW struck the arm holding the pistol ; and 
the driver states that he heard the pistol crash 
through the window on the second floor of the Lin- 
coln Hotel. Anstruther pushed the express driver, 
who was in his way, backwards over the seat among 
the packages and leaped upon the hold-up man; 
the driver said he heard Anstruther's muscles 
crunch savagely, as with little apparent effort 
he flung the man over the Ford; he fell with d 
thud on the asphalt and stayed there. Anstruther 
then launched a kick at the man at the wheel of the 
Ford, who crumpled up and fell out of the opposite 
side of the car. 

"The police found the pistol inside a room on 
the second floor of the Lincoln Hotel. The steering 
post of the Ford car was torn from its fastenings. 
Both of the hold-up men had ribs and collar-bones 
broken, and the gunman's forearm was bent double 
in the middle with both bones broken. These two 
men agreed later with the express driver that An- 
struther's attack, for suddenness, swiftness, and 
terrific strength was beyond anything they had 
dreamed possible; he was like a thunderbolt; like 
some furious demon. When the two men were 
huddled in black heaps on the pavement, Anstruther 
said to the driver, quite impersonally: 

" 'Drive to the police station; Come on! Wake 
up! I've got to get this stuff locked up!' 

"One of the hold-up men had lost all his money 

and the home he was building when Anstruther 

had foreclosed a loan in his desperate scramble for 

radium. He was a Greek named Poulos, and has 

(Continued on page 970) 



©& Second Deluge 

"* % garrett<$Servi$$ ~ 

Author of "The Moon Metal," "A Columbus of Space," etc. 




On the hrood breast of the Sphinx, ho saw a representation of a world overwhelmed with a deluge, and encircling it was what he 

instantly concluded tn he the picture of n nebula! Underneath. In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, with which Cosmo was familiar, 

waa an inscription In letters of sold— the prophecy of the Second Deluge! 

m 



What Went Before 



COSMO VERSAL has made the discovery that the 
world is on the eve of a second deluge. He 
placards New York with posters, calling all to pre- 
pare for the coming flood. For Ms own safety he 
begins the building of an enormous ark and barely 
has it completed when reports are flashed about 
the world that the waters are actually beginning 
to rise. 

Suddenly, in midday, the world grew dark and 
people became terror-stricken. The rain descended 
from an invisible source and the waters rose, Liter- 
ally, the world sweat. About his ark Cosmo had 
placed electric wires, and when the maddened pop- 
idace, now terrified beyond -measure, attempted to 
storm the ark, hundreds were shocked and many in- 
stantly killed. Then the waters rose ten feet an 
hour. 

Finally the City of New York is all submerged 
and the huge Municipal Building, is nearly all under 
water when the last of the government battle-ships 



breaks away from the Brooklyn Navy-Yard and is 
carried over against the Municipal ha '.din ■:« '■ 
ing through the side and then sinking to the bottom. 
From this wreck a small boat arises and in this 
boat comes Amos Blank, the richest man in the 
world, alongside the ark. Blank has lost his 
mind, but he offers a billion dollars in securities, 
and waves the packet over his head, if Cosmo will 
take him aboard. He is taken in and than the Ark 
i3 started toward the East where, it has been fig- 
ured, is the world's highest land, and which will be 
the first landing place when the waters recede. Sud- 
denly those aboard see the stars overhead and knoiv 
it has stopped raining. . 

Meanwhile Professor Ptudder has bumi convoy- 
ing the President with a party in an aeroplane 
while the water is falling, and when the rain stops 
this wonderful flying -machine rests on a mountain 
peak. It can be converted into a serviceable boat, 
and this is done. 



THE SECOND DELUGE 

By GARRETT P. SERVISS 
(Part III) 




CHAPTER XVI 

Mutiny in the Ark! 

E left Cosmo Versal and his Ark full of 
the flower of mankind in the midst of 
what was formerly the Atlantic Ocean, 
but which had now expanded over so 
many millions of square miles which had 



once been the seats of vast empires, that to an eye 
looking at it with a telescope from Mars it would 
have been unrecognizable. 

All of eastern North America, all of South Ameri- 
ca to the feet of the Andes, all but the highest it could not 
mountains 



nearly all of Africa, ex- 
cept some of the high- 
lands of the south, all of 
northern and southwest- 
ern Asia, as well as the 
peninsula of India, all of 
China and the adjacent 
lands and islands except 
the lofty peaks, .the whole 
of Australia, and the __ 
archipelagoes of the Paci- WWWWH 8 WWP1W — 
fie, had become parts of 

the floor of a mighty ocean which rolled unbroken 
from pole to pole. 

The Great Deep had resumed its ancient reign, 
and what was left of the habitable globe presented 
to view only far separated islands and the serrated 
tops of such ranges as the Alps> the Caucasus, the 
Himalayas, and the Andes. The astonished in- 
habitants of the ocean depths now swam over the 
ruins of great cities, and brushed with their fins 
the chiseled capitals of columns that had supported 
the proudest structures of human hands. 



PRACTICALLY the whole 
the great flood, as far as 
know. 

The "Jules Verne" the intrepid French submarine, in 

Hie meanwhile is cvphiiaij the submerged world and is 

visiting the city of Paris, and later, inilh Cosmo Vers&l 

as a passenger, Egypt is visited as -well. Important dis- 

"'"" are made, particularly at the Siikynx. cad its 

■pected secret is at last revealed. 



We have seen, how the unexpected arrest of the 
flood had left Cosmo uncertain as to the course that 
he ought to pursue. But he did not long remain in 
doubt. He was sure that the downpour would be 
resumed after an interval which at the most could 
not exceed a few weeks, and he resolved to con- 
tinue his way toward the future land of promise 
in Asia. 

But he thought that he would have time to turn 
his prow in the direction of Europe, for he felt a 
great desire to know by actual inspection to what 
height the water had attained. He was certain that 
than he had estimated — the in- 
dications of his rain-gage 
gg had been too unvarying 
to admit of doubt on that 
by point — but he had no 
means of direct measure- 
ment since he could not 
sound the tremendous 
depths beneath the Ark. 
After long meditation 
on the probable effects of 

the descending columns of 

WW^^Wi water which he had seen, 
he concluded that they 
might have added more rapidly than he first sup- 
posed to the increase of the general level. Besides, 
he reflected that there was no proof that the general 
downpour might not have been greater over some 
parts of the earth than others. All these doubts 
could be dissipated if he could get a good look at 
some lofty mountain range, such as the Sierra 
Nevada of Spain, or the Pyrenees, or, if he could 
venture within sight of them, the Alps. 
So he said to Captain Arms : 
"Steer for the coast of Europe." 



945 



946 



AMAZING STORIES 



The fine -weather had produced a good effect upon 
the spirits of the company. Not only were the 
ports and the gangways all open, but Cosmo ordered 
the temporary removal of rows of adjustable plates 
on the sides of the vessel, which transformed the 
broad outer gangways, running its whole length, 
into delightful promenade decks. There, in cozy 
chairs, and protected with rugs, the passengers sat, 
fanned by a refreshing breeze, and dazzled by the 
splendor of the ocean. 

They recalled, by their appearance, a ship-load 
of summer tourists bound for the wonders and 
pleasures of foreign parts. This likeness to a 
pleasure cruise was heightened by the constant 
attentions of the crew, under Cosmo's orders, who 
carried about refreshing drinks and lunches, and 
conducted themselves like regular ocean "stewards." 

It seemed impossible to believe that the world had 
been drowned, and some almost persuaded them- 
selves that the whole thing was a dream. 

It must not be supposed that the thousand-odd 
persons who composed this remarkable ship's com- 
pany were so hard-hearted, so selfish, so forgetful, 
so morally obtuse, that they never thought of the 
real horror of their situation, and of the awful 
calamity that had overwhelmed so many millions 
of their fellow creatures. They thought of all that 
only too seriously and in spite of themselves. The 
women especially were overwhelmed by it. But 
they did not wish to dwell upon it, and Cosmo Ver- 
sal did not wish that they should. 

At night he had musicians play in the grand 
saloon; he distributed books among the passengers 
from a large library which he had selected; and at 
last he had the stage set, and invited his friends, 
the players, to entertain the company. 

But he would have no plays but those of Shake- 
speare. 

There were, probably, not half a dozen persons 
in the Ark who had even seen representations of 
these great dramas, and very few who had read 
them, so that they had the advantage of complete 
novelty. 

The play selected for the first representation was 
the tragedy of "King Lear," a strange choice, it 
would, at first sight, seem, but Cosmo Versal had 
a deep knowledge of human nature. He knew that 
only tragedy would be endured there, and that it 
must be tragedy so profound and overmastering 
that it would dominate the feelings of those who 
heard and beheld it. It was the principle of im- 
munizing therapeutics, where poison paralyzes 
poison. 

It turned out as he anticipated. These people, 
unused to such depth of dramatic passion, for the 
plays to which they had been used had been far 
from the Shakespearian standard, were wholly ab- 
sorbed in the development of the tragedy. It was a 
complete revelation to them, and they were carried 
out of themselves, and found in the sympathy 
awakened by this heart-crushing spectacle of the 
acme of human woe an unconscious solace for their 
own moral anguish. 

Afterward Cosmo put upon the stage "Hamlet," 
and "Othello," and "Macbeth," and "Coriolanus," 
and "Julius Caesar," but he avoided, for the present, 



the less tragic dramas. And all of them, being new 
to the hearers, produced an enormous effect. 

On alternate nights he substituted music for the 
drama, and, as this was confined to the most ma- 
jestic productions of the' great masters of the past, 
many of whose works, like some of Shakespeare's 
had long been neglected if not forgotten, their 
power over the spirits of the company was, perhaps, 
even more pronounced. 

Cosmo Versal was already beginning the educa- 
tion of his chosen band of race regenerators, while 
he mused upon the wonders that the science of 
eugenics would achieve after the world should have 
re- emerged from the waters. 

One of the most singular effects of the music 
was that produced upon the insane billionaire, Amos 
Blank. He had been confined in the room that 
Cosmo had assigned to him, and was soothed, when- 
ever Cosmo could find time to visit him, with pre- 
tended acquiescense in his crazed notion that the 
trip of the Ark was part of a scheme to "corner"' 
the resources of the world. 

Cosmo persuaded him that the secret was un- 
known except to themselves, and that it was 
essential to success that he (Blank) should remain 
in retirement, and accordingly the latter expressed 
no desire to leave his place of imprisonment, which 
he regarded as the headquarters of the combina- 
tion, passing hours in covering sheets of paper with 
columns of figures, which he fancied represented 
the future profits of the enterprise. 

One night when a symphony of Beethoven was 
to be played, Cosmo led Amos Blank through the 
crowded saloon and placed him near the musicians. 
He resisted at first, and when he saw the crowd he 
drew back, exclaiming : 

"What? Not overboard yet?" 

But Cosmo soothed him with some whispered 
promise, and he took hia seat, glancing covertly 
around him. Then. the instruments struck up, and 
immediately fixed his attention. As the musical 
theme developed his eyes gradually lost their wild 
look, and a softened expression took its place. He 
sank lower in his seat, and rested his head upon his 
hand. His whole soul seemed, at last, to be ab- 
sorbed in the music. When it was finished Blank 
was a changed man. Then Cosmo clearly explained 
to him all that had happened. 

After the first overwhelming effeet of his re- 
awakening to the realities of his situation had 
passed, the billionaire was fully restored to all his 
faculties. Henceforth he mingled with the other 
passengers and, as if the change that had come over 
his spirit had had greater results than the simple 
restoration of sanity, he became one of the most 
popular and useful members of Cosmo Versal's 
family of pilgrims. 

Among the other intellectual diversions which 
Cosmo provided was something quite unique, due 
to his own mental bias. This consisted of "con- 
ferences," held in the grand saloon, afternoons, in 
the presence of the entire company, at which the 
principal speakers were his two "speculative gen- 
iuses," Costake Theriade and Sir Wilfrid Athel- 
stone. They did not care very much for one an- 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



947 



other and each thought that the time allotted to 
the other was wasted. 

Theriade wished to talk continuously of the in- 
finite energy stored up in the atoms of matter, and 
of the illimitable power which the release of that 
energy, hy the system that he had all but completed, 
would place at the disposition of man; and at the 
same time Sir Athelstone could with difficulty be 
held in leash while he impatiently awaited an op- 
portunity to explain how excessively near he had 
arrived to the direct production of protoplasm from 
inanimate matter, and the chemical control of living 
cells, so that henceforth man could people or un- 
people the earth as he liked. 

One evening, when everybody not on duty was in 
bed, Captain Amos entered Cosmo's cabin, where 
the latter was dictating to Joseph Smith, and softly 
approaching his chief, with a furtive glance round 
the room, stooped and whispered something in his 
ear. A startled, though incredulous, expression ap- 
peared on Cosmo's face, and he sprang to his feet, 
but before speaking he obeyed a sign from the 
captain and told Smith to leave the room. Then he 
locked the door and returned to his table, where 
he dropped into a chair, exclaiming in a guarded 
voice : 

"Great Heaven, can this be possible! Have you 
riot made a mistake?" 

"No," returned the captain in a stridulous whis- 
per,. "I have made no mistake. I'm absolutely sure. 
If something is not done instantly we are lost!" 

"This is terrible!" returned Cosmo, taking his 
head in his hands. "You say it is that fellow 
Campo? I never liked his looks," 

"He is the ringleader," replied the captain. "The 
first suspicion of what he was up to came to me 
through an old sailor who has been with me on many 
a voyage. He overheard Campo talking with an- 
other man and he listened. Trust an old seadog to 
use his ears and keep himself out of notice." 

"And what did they say?" 

"Enough to freeze the marrow in your bones! 
Campo proposed to begin by throwing 'old Versal' 
and me into the sea, and then he said, with us gone, 
and nobody .but a lot of muddle-headed scientists to 
deal with, it would be easy to take the ship; seize 
all the treasure in her; make everybody who would 
not join the mutiny walk the plank, except the wo- 
men, and steer for some place where they could 
land and lead a jolly life. 

" *You see,' says Campo, 'this flood is a fake. 
There ain't going to be no more flood; it's only a 
shore wash. But there's been enough of it to fix 
things all right for us. We've got the world in our 
fist! There's millions of money aboard this ship, 
and there's plenty of female beauty, and we've only 
got to reach out and take it.' " 

Cosmo Versal's brow darkened as he listened, and 
a look that would have cowed the mutineers if they 
could have seen it, came into his eyes. His hand 
nervously clutched a paper-knife which broke in his 
grasp, as he said in a voice trembling with passion : 

"They don't know me-— i/ow don't know me. Show 
me the proofs of this conspiracy. Who are the 
others? Campo and his friend can't be alone." 

"Alone!" exclaimed the captain, unconsciously. 



raising his voice. "There's a dozen as black-handed 
rascals in it as ever went unswung." 

"Do you know them?" 

"Jim Waters does." 

"Why haven't you told me sooner? How long has 
it been going on?" 

"Almost ever since the deluge stopped, I think; 
but it was only last night that Waters got on the 
track of it, and only now that he told me. This fel- 
low that Waters heard Campo talking to is plainly 
a new recruit. I say there are a dozen, because 
Waters has found out that number; but I don't 
know but that there may be a hundred." 

"How did these wretches get aboard?" demanded 
Cosmo, fiercely opening and shutting his fists. 

"Excuse me," said the captain, "but that is up 
to you to say." 

"So it is," replied Cosmo, with a grim look; 
"and it's 'up to me' to say what'll become of them. 
I see how it is, they must have got in with the 
last lot that I took— under assumed names very 
likely. I've been more than once on the point of 
calling that man Campo up and questioning him. 
I was surprised by his hangdog look the first time 
I saw him. But I have been so busy." 

"You'll have to get busy in another sense if you 
mean to save this ship and your life," said the 
captain earnestly. 

"So I shall. Are you armed? No? Then take 
these — and use 'em when I give the word." 

He handed the captain two heavy automatic 
pistols, and put a pair in his own sidepockets. 

"Now," he continued, ,f the first thing is to make 
sure that we've got the right men — and all of them. 
Call in Joseph Smith." 

The captain went to the door, and as he ap- 
proached it there was a knock. He turned the key 
and cautiously opened a crack to look out. The door 
was instantly jerked open in his face. Six men 
rushed in, with Campo, a burly, black-browed fel- 
low, at their head. Three of the men threw the 
captain on his back, and pinioned his hands, before 
he could draw a weapon, while Campo and the others 
sprang toward Cosmo Versal, Campo pointing a pis- 
tol at his head. 

"It'3 all up, Mr. Versal!" cried Campo with a 
sneer. "I'll take command of this ship, and you'll 
go fish for nebulas." 

Cosmo had one advantage; he was behind his 
desk, and it was a broad and long one, and placed 
almost against the wall. They could not get at 
him without getting round the desk. Campo did not 
fire, though he might have shot Cosmo in his tracks; 
but evidently he was nourishing the idea of making 
him walk the plank. With a sign he commanded his 
co-conspirators to flank the desk at each end, while 
he kept Cosmo covered with his pistol. 

But with a lightning movement, Cosmo dropped 
under the desk, and, favored by his slight form and 
his extreme agility, darted like a cat past Campo's 
legs, and, almost before the latter could turn round, 
was out of the open door. Campo fired at the re- 
treating form, but the bullet went wide of the 
mark. The pistol was practically noiseless, and the 
sound reached no ears in the staterooms. 

It happened that a switch controlling the lights 



948 



AMAZING STORIES 



in the gangway was on the wall fey Cosmo's door, 
and in passing he swiftly reached up and turned it 
off. Thus he was in complete darkness, and when 
Campo darted out of the door he could not see the 
fugitive. He could hear his footsteps, however, and 
with two of his companions he rushed blindly after 
him, firing two or three shots at random. But 
Cosmo had turned at the first cross passage, and 
then at the next, this part of the Ark being a 
labyrinth of corridors, and the pursuers quickly 
lost all trace of him. 

Campo and his companions made their way back 
to Cosmo's cabin, where their fellows were guard- 
ing Captain Arms. They found the switch in the 
passage and turned on the light. They were almost 
immediately joined by several other conspirators 
conducting Joseph Smith, bound and gagged. They 
held a short consultation, and Campo, with many 
curses, declared that Cosmo Versal must be caught 
at all hazards. 

"The big-headed fiend I" he cried, gnashing his 
teeth. "Let me get my grippers on him, and I'll 
squelch him like a bug!" 

They threw Joseph Smith into the room beside 
the helpless captain, after taking the latter's pistols, 
locked the door from the outside, and hurried off 
on their search. In the passages they encountered 
several more of their friends. They now numbered 
fifteen, all armed. This may seem a small number 
to undertake to capture the Ark; but it must be 
remembered that among the thousand-odd inmates, 
exclusive of the crew, only about one in three was 
a man, and the majority of these were peaceable 
scientists who, it was to be presumed, had no fight 
in them. 

At any rate, Campo, with the reckless courage 
of his kind, felt confident that if he could get Cosmo 
Versal, with the captain and Joseph Smith out of 
the way, he could easily overmaster the others. He 
had not much fear of the crew, for he knew that 
they were not armed, and he had succeeded in win- 
ning over three of their number, the only ones he 
had thought at all dangerous, because he had read 
their character. More than half the crew were 
employed about the engines or on the animal deck, 
and most of the others were simply stewards who 
would not stand before the pistols. 

But, while the mutineers were hurriedly search- 
ing the corridors, Cosmo had run straight to the 
bridge, where he found two of his men in charge, 
and whence he sent an electric call to all the men 
employed in the navigation of the vessel. They 
came running from various directions, but a dozen 
of them were caught in the passages by the 
mutineers and bound before they could comprehend 
what had happened. Seven, however, succeeded In 
reaching the bridge, and among these was Jim 
Waters. 

"There's a mutiny," said Cosmo. "We've got to 
fight for our lives. Have you got arms?" 

Not one had a weapon except Waters, who dis- 
played a pistol half as long as his arm. 

"Here, Peterson, take this," said Cosmo, handing 
a pistol to one of the two mariners who had been 
on the bridge. "They will be here in a minute. K 



Campo had been a sailor, he'd have had possession 
here the first thing. I'll turn off all lights." 

With that he pressed a button which put out 
every lamp in the Ark. But there was a full moon, 
and they concealed themselves in the shadows. 

Presently they heard the mutineers approaching, 
stumbling and cursing in the darkness. Cosmo 
directed Peterson and Waters to place themselves 
at his side, and told them to fire when he gave the 
word. 

The next instant four men appeared crossing a 
moonlit place at the foot of the steps on the out- 
side of the dome. 

"Wait," whispered Cosmo. "The pistols go at a 
pull. We can sweep down a dozen in ten seconds. 
Let them all get in sight first." 

Half a minute later there were twelve men climb- 
ing the steps and cautiously looking up. 

"Fire!" cried Cosmo, setting the example, and 
three streams, of flame poured from the bridge. 
The sound of the bullets striking made more noise 
than the explosions. 

Five or six of the men below fell, knocking down 
their comrades, and a loud curse burst from the 
lips of Campo, who had a bullet through his arm. 

The mutineers tumbled in a heap at the bottom, 
and instantly Cosmo, switching on all lights, led 
the way down upon them. His men, who had no 
arms, seized anything they could get their hands 
on that would serve to strike a blow, and followed 
him. 

The conspirators were overwhelmed by the sud- 
denness and fury of the attack. 

Four of them were killed outright and five were 
wounded, one so severely that he survived only a 
few hours. 

Cosmo's quick and overwhelming victory was due 
to the fact that the mutineers, in mounting the 
steps, could not see him and his men in the shadows, 
and when the automatic weapons, which fired three 
shots per second by repeated pressure of the trig- 
ger, from a chamber containing twenty-one car- 
tridges, once opened on them they could do nothing 
in the hail of missiles, especially when crowded 
together on the steps. 

Campo was the only one who had any fight left 
in him. He struck Cosmo a blow on the head that 
felled him, and then darted out upon the forepart 
of the dome, running on the cleats, and made his 
way to the top. 

Cosmo was on his feet in a second and rushing 
in pursuit, closely followed by Jim Waters. The 
fugitive ran for the ratlines leading to the lookout 
pn the central mast. He climbed them like a 
squirrel, and the man in the cro'nest, amazed at the 
sight below him, stared at the approaching muti- 
neer, unable to utter a cry, Campo, who, as the 
moonbeams showed, now had a knife in his teeth, 
rapidly approached, and the lookout shrank in terror. 
But before Campo could reach the cro'nest, a blind- 
ing light dazzled his eyes. Cosmo had shouted an 
order to Peterson to run back to the bridge and turn 
a search-light upon the mast. Then Campo heard 
a thundering voice below him: 

"Take another step and I'll blow you into the 
sea I" 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



949 



He glanced below, and saw Cosmo and Waters 
covering him with their pistols. 

"Not another step!" roared Cosmo again. "Come 
down, and I'll give you a trial for your life." 

Campo hesitated; but, seeing that he could he 
shot down, and finding a gleam of hope in Cosmo's 
words, he turned and came slowly down. The 
moment he touched the bottom he was seized by 
Waters and another man, and, under Cosmo's direc- 
tions, his hands were bound behind his back. 

Ten minutes later the members of the crew who 
had been caught by the mutineers in the gangways 
were all unbound, and then Cosmo broke open the 
door of hi3 cabin, the lcey having been lost or thrown 
away by Campo, and the captain and Joseph 
Smith were released. 

"Well, we've got 'em," said Cosmo grimly to the 
captain, "The mutiny is at an end, and there'll 
never be another." 

In the meantime many of the passengers had been 
aroused by the unaccustomed noises, although the 
pistols had not made enough sound to be heard from 
the place where they were fired. Nightcapped 
heads appeared on all sides, and some, in scanty , 
clothing, were wandering in the passageways, de- 
manding what the trouble was. Cosmo, the captain, 
and Joseph Smith reassured them, saying that there 
was no danger, and that something had happened 
which would be explained in the morning. 

The prisoners — and the whole fifteen were finally, 
captured — were locked up in a strong-room, and a 
surgeon was sent to dress their wounds. Cosmo 
Versal and the captain resumed their accustomed 
places on the bridge, where they talked over the 
affair, and Cosmo explained his plans for the mor- 
row. 

'Til give him hi3 trial, as I promised," Cosmo 
said in conclusion, "and you'll see what it will be. 
Mutiny aboard this Ark!" And he struck the rail 
a violent blow with his fist. 

The next morning directly after breakfast Cosmo 
called all passengers and crew into the grand 
saloon, where many wondering looks were ex- 
changed and many puzzling questions asked. When 
the mutineers, with hands tied behind their backs, 
and their many bandages on arms and legs, were 
Jed in, exclamations of astonishment were heard, 
and some of the timid ones shrank away in fear. 

Cosmo lost no time with preliminaries. 

"These men," he said, taking his stand upon the 
platform, "have mutinied and tried to capture the 
Ark. This fellow" — pointing to Campo — "was the 
concocter and leader of the plot. He intended to 
throw me and Captain Arms, and all of you whom 
he did not wish to retain for his fiendish purposes, 
into the sea. But Heaven has delivered them into 
our hands. I have promised them a trial, and they 
shall have it. But it will be a trial in which justice 
shall not be cheated. I find that a moral poison ha3 
stolen into this selected company, and I will 
eliminate it for once and all." 

The expressions of amazement and alarm re- 
doubled in intensity. 

"Professor Abel Able, Professor Jeremiah Moses, 
Sir Wilfred Athelstone, Costake" Theriade," Cosmo 
continued, "you will please come forward to act 



as members of the jury, of which I name myself 
also a member. I shall be both judge and juror 
here, but I will hear what the rest of you may have 
to say." 

The men named stepped forward with some evi- 
dences of embarrassment, and Cosmo gravely gave 
them seats beside him. Then he commanded that 
the prisoners should confront the jury, and heavily 
guarded, they were led to the front. 

The brutishnes3 of Campo's face had never 
struck the passengers who had seen him before as 
it did now. He looked a veritable jailbird. At the 
Bame time he was evidently in terror for his life. 
He muttered something which nobody understood. 

Cosmo, who had informed himself of all the cir- 
cumstances from Waters, and by privately question- 
ing the others, had satisfied himself that the entire 
scheme of the mutiny was of Campo's contrivance, 
and that they had been led into it solely by his per- 
suasion and threats, ordered Waters to speak. The 
seaman told a straight story of what he had heard 
and seen. Cosmo himself then related the events of 
the night. When he had finished he turned to Cam- 
po and demanded what he had to say. 

Campo again muttered under his breath, but 
made no attempt to defend himself, simply saying: 

"You promised me a trial." 

"And haven't I given you a trial?" demanded 
Cosmo with flashing eyes. "You thought you held 
the world in your grasp. It is / that hold it in my 
grasp and you, too! You were going to make us 
'walk that plank.' It is you who are going to wall 
itl Is that the verdict?" (turning to the four 
jurymen.) 

Some of them nodded, some simply stared at Cos- 
mo, surprised by the vehemence of his manner. 

"Enough," he said. "As to you," addressing the 
other prisoners, "you have had your lesson ; see that 
you don't forget it ! Release them, and lead Campo 
to the promenade deck." 

Nobody thought that Cosmo would literally exe- 
cute his threat to make the mutineer walk the plank, 
but, as he had told Captain Arms, they didn't know 
him. They were about to see that in Cosmo Versal 
they had not only a prophet, a leader, and a judge, 
but an inexorable master also. 

A plank was prepared and placed sloping from the 
rail. 

"Walk!" said Cosmo firmly. 

To everybody's surprise Campo, with blinded 
eyes, started immediately up the plank, followed its 
full length with quick, unfaltering step, and plung- 
ing from the end, disappeared in the sea. 

Many had turned away, unable to look, but many 
also saw the tragedy to the end. Then a profound 
sigh was heard from the whole company of the 
spectators. As they turned away, talking in awed 
voices, they felt, as never before, that the world 
had shrunk to the dimensions of the Ark, and that 
Cosmo "Versal was its dictator. 

That same afternoon Cosmo arranged one of his 
"conferences," and nobody dared to be absent, al- 
though all minds were yet too much excited to fol- 
low the discussions which few could understand. 
But at length Costake" Theriade concentrated their 
attention by a wild burst of eloquence about the 



950 



AMAZING STORIES 



wonders of the inter -atomic forces. Sir Athelstone, 
unable to endure the applause that greeted his rival, 
abruptly sprang to his feet, his round face red with 
anger, and shouted : 

"I say, you know, this is twaddle 1" 

"Will the Englishman interrupt not?" cried 
Theriade, with his eyes ablaze. "Shall I project not 
the Sir Englishman to the feeshes?" 

He looked as if he were about to try to execute 
his threat, and Sir Athelstone assumed a boxing 
attitude; but before hostilities could begin a loud 
shout from the deck, followed by cries and exclama- 
tions, caused everybody to rush out of the saloon. 

Those who succeeded in getting a glimpse over 
the shoulders of the members of the crew, who were 
already lined up along the only portion of the bul- 
warks available for seeing the part of the ocean on 
which attention seemed to be fixed, stared open- 
mouthed at a round-backed mass of shining metal, 
with a circular aperture on the top, the cover of 
which was canted to one side, and there stood a man, 
waving a gold-laced red kepi, and bowing and smil- 
ing with great civility. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Jules Verne 

THE swell of the sea caused the strange look- 
ing craft to rise and sink a little, and some- 
times the water ran bubbling all around the 
low rim of the aperture, in the center of which the 
red-capped man 3tood, resting on some invisible 
support, repeating his salutations and amicable 
smiles, and balancing his body to the rocking of 
the waves with the unconscious skill of a sailor. 

The Ark was running slowly, but it would very 
soon have left the stranger in its wake if he had 
not also been in motion. It was evident that the ob- 
ject under his feet must be a submersible vessel of 
some kind, although it was of a type which Captain 
Arms, standing beside Cosmo on the bridge, de- 
clared that he had never set eyes on before. It lay 
so low in the water that nothing could be seen of 
its motive machinery, but it kept its place alongside 
the Ark with the ease of a dolphin, and gradually 
edged in closer. 

When it was so near that he could be heard speak- 
ing in a voice hardly raised above the ordinary 
pitch, the man, first again lifting his cap with an 
elegant gesture, addressed Cosmo Vers£l by name, 
using the English language with a scarcely per- 
ceptible accent: 

"M. Versal, I offer you my felicitations upon the 
magnificent appearance of your Ark, and I present 
my compliments to the ladies and gentlemen of your 
company." 

And then he bowed once more to the passengers, 
who were almost crowding each other over the side 
in their eagerness to both see and hear. 

"Thank you," responded Cosmo, "but who are 
you?" 

"Capitaine Ives de Beauxchamps, of the French 
army." 

"Where's the navy, then?" blurted out Captain 
Arms. 



De Beauxchamps glanced at the speaker a little 
disdainfully, and then replied gravely: 

"Alas! At the bottom of the sea— with all the 
other navies." 

"And how have you escaped?" demanded Cosmo 
Versal. 

"As you see, in a submersible." 

"Can it be possible!" exclaimed Cosmo. "And 
you have been in the sea ever since the beginning 
of the flood?" 

"Since the first rise of the ocean on the coast of 
Brest." 

"Have you no companions?" 

"Six — in truth seven." 

"Astonishing!" said Cosmo Versal. "But I heard 
nothing of the preparation of a submersible. In 
fact, the idea of such a thing never occurred to me. 
You must have made your preparations secretly." 

"We did. We did not share your certainty, M. 
Versal, concerning the arrival of a deluge. Even 
when we embarked we were not sure that it would 
be more than an affair of the coasts." 

"But you must be on the point of starvation by 
this time. The flood has only begun. This cessation 
is but for a time, while we are passing a gap in the 
nebula. You will come aboard the Ark. I had chosen 
my company, but your gallant escape, and the abil- 
ity that you have shown, prove that you are worthy 
to aid in the reestablishment of the race, and I have 
no doubt that your companions are equally worthy." 

The Frenchman bowed politely, and with a slight 
smile replied: 

"I believe, M. Versal, that the Jules Verne is as 
safe and comfortable, and proportionately as well 
provisioned, as your Ark." 

"So you call it the Jules Verne?" returned Cosmo, 
smiling in his turn. 

"We were proud to give it that name, and its con- 
duct has proved that it is worthy of it." 

"But you will surely come aboard and shake 
hands, and let us offer you a little hospitality," said 
Cosmo. 

"I should be extremely happy to pay my compli- 
ments to the ladies," responded de Beauxchamps, 
"but I must postpone that pleasure for the present. 
In the meantime, however, I should be glad if you 
would lower a landing stage, and permit me to 
send aboard the seventh member of our party, who, 
I venture to think, may find the Ark a more com- 
fortable abode than our submersible." 

"And who may that person be?" 

"The King of England." 

"Yes," resumed the Frenchman, "we picked up 
His Majesty the first day after the deluge began to 
descend from the sky." 

Exclamations of surprise and wonder were heard 
on all sides. 

"I will lower a ladder at once," Cosmo called out, 
and immediately ran down to the lowest deck, com- 
manding his men to make haste. 

The Jules Verne was skilfully brought close up to 
the side of the Ark, so that the visible part of her 
rounded back was nearly in contact with the bottom 
of the companion-ladder when it was lowered. The 
sea was so calm that there was little difliculty in. 
executing this maneuver. De Beauxchamps disap- 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



peared in the depths of the submersible, and after a 
few minutes reemerged into sight, supporting on 
his arm a stout, rather short man, whose face, it 
was evident, had once been full and ruddy, but now 
it was pale and worn. 

"It is he!" exclaimed an English member of 
Cosmo's company to some of his fellow countrymen 
who had forced their way to the front. 

"It is the king!" 

And then occurred a singular thing, inspired by 
the marvelous circumstances of this meeting of the 
sovereign of a drowned kingdom, upon the bosom 
of the waters that had destroyed it, with the mere 
handful that remained alive out of all the millions 
of his subjects. 

These loyal English people bared their heads (and 
there were three women among them) and sang, 
with a pathos that surely the old hymn had never 
expressed before, their national anthem: "God Save 
the King." ' 

The effect was immense. Every head aboard the 
Ark was immediately uncovered. De Beauxchamps 
removed his cap, and one or two bared heads could 
be seen peering out of the interior of the submer- 
sible below him. As the king was steadied across 
to the bottom of the companion-ladder, the voices 
of the singers rose louder, and many of the other 
passengers, moved by sympathy, or carried away 
by epidemic feeling, joined in the singing. Never 
had any monarch a greeting like that ! Its recipient 
was moved to the depths of his soul, and but for the 
aid given him would have been unable to ascend the 
swaying steps. 

As he was assisted upon the deck, the song 
ceased and a great cheer broke forth. There were 
tears in his eyes, and he trembled in every limb, 
when he returned the welcoming pressure of Cosmo 
Versal 's hand. 

The moment he saw that the king was safely 
aboard the Ark, de Beauxchamps, with a farewell 
salutation, disappeared into the interior of the 
Jules Verne, and the submersible sank out of sight 
as gently as if it had been a huge fish that had come 
to the top of the sea to take a look about. 

After the sensation caused by the arrival of the 
English monarch aboard the Ark had somewhat 
quieted down, and after His Majesty had had an op- 
portunity to recover himself, Cosmo Versal invited 
his new guest to tell the story of his escape. They 
were seated in Cosmo's cabin, and there were pres- 
ent Joseph Smith, Professor Jeremiah Moses, Pro- 
fessor Abel Able, and Amos Blank, besides several 
other members of the ship's company, including two 
of the loyal Englishmen who had been the first to 
strike up the national anthem on seeing their res- 
cued king. 

Richard Edward, or Richard IV as he wa3 official- 
ly entitled, was one of the best kings England ever 
had. He was popular not only because of his almost 
democratic manners and the simplicity of his life, 
but more because he was a great lover of peace. 
We have already seen how he was chosen, solely on 
that account, to be of the number of the rulers in- 
vited to go in the Ark. He had not even replied to 
Cosmo's invitation, but that was simply because, 
like everybody about him in whom he placed con- 



951 

fidence, he regarded Cosmo Versal as a mere 
mountebank, and thought that there was no more 
danger of a universal flood than of the fall of the 
moon out of the sky. 

Before responding to Cosmo's request he made a 
gracious reference to the indifference with which 
he had formerly treated his present host. 

"I am sorry, Mr. Versal," he said, with a depreca- 
tory smile, "that I did not sooner recognize the fact 
that your knowledge surpassed that of my scientific 
advisers." 

"Your Majesty was not alone," replied Cosmo 
gravely, turning with his fingers a small globe that 
stood on his desk. "From all these deep-sunken 
continents," (waving his hand toward the globe), 
"if the voices once heard there could now speak, 
there would arise a mighty sound of lament for that 
error." 

The king looked at him with an expression of 
surprise. He glanced from Cosmo's diminutive fig- 
ure to his great overhanging brow, marked with 
the lines of thought, and a look of instinctive def- 
erence came into his eyes. 

"But," continued Cosmo Versal, "it is bootless to 
speak of these things now. I beg that Your Majesty 
will condescend to enlighten us concerning the 
fate of that great kingdom, of ancient renown, over 
which you so worthily reigned." 

An expression of deepest pain passed across the 
face of Richard Edward. For some moments he re- 
mained buried in a mournful silence, and many 
sighs came from his breast. All looked at him with 
profound commiseration. At last he raised his head 
and said, sorrowfully and brokenly: 

"My kingdom is drowned— my subjects have 
perished, almost to the last soul — my family, my 
gracious consort, my children- — all, all — gone!" 

Here he broke down, and could speak no more. 
Not a word was spoken, for a time, and the two 
Englishmen present wept with their unfortunate 
king. 

Cosmo Versal was no Jess deeply moved than the 
others. He sat, for a while, in complete silence. 
Then he arose and, going to the king, put his hand 
upon his shoulder, and talked to him long, in a low, 
consoling voice. At last the broken-spirited mon- 
arch was able to suppress his emotions sufficiently 
to recite, but with many interruptions while he 
regained mastery of his feelings, the story of his 
woes and of his marvelous escape. 

"Sir Francis Brook," he said, "prepared a barge, 
when the water invaded London, and in that barge 
we escaped — Her Royal Majesty, our children, and 
a number of members of the Royal household — the 
barge was the only vessel of levium that existed in 
England. Sir Francis had furnished and provis- 
ioned it well, and we did not think that it would 
be necessary to go farther than to some high point 
in the interior. Sir Francis was of the opinion 
that Wales would afford a secure refuge. 

"It was a terrible thing to see the drowning of 
London, the sweeping of the awful bore that came 
up the Thames from the sea, the shipping wrecked 
by the tearing waves, the swirl of the fast-rising 
water round the immense basin in which the city 
lay, the downfall of the great buildings — Westmin- 



952 



AMAZING STORIES 



ster Abbey was one of the first that succumbed — ! 
the overturned boats, and even great vessels float- 
ing on their sides, or bottom up, the awful spectacle 
of the bodies of the drowned tossing in the waves — 
all these sights were before our horrified eyes while 
the vast eddy swept us round and round until the 
water rose so high that we were driven off toward 
the southwest. 

"That we should have escaped at all was a mir- 
acle of miracles. It was the wonderful buoyancy of 
the levium barge that saved us. But the terrors of 
that scene can never fade from my memory. And 
the fearful sufferings of the queen I And our child- 
ren — but I cannot go on with this 1" 

"Calm yourself, Your Majesty," said Cosmo 
sympathetically. "The whole world has suffered 
With you. If we are spared and are yet alive, it is 
through the hand of Providence — to whom we must 
bow." 

"We must have passed over Surrey and Hamp- 
shire," the king resumed, "the invasion of the sea 
having buried the hills." 

"I am surprised at that," said Cosmo. "I did not 
think that the sea had anywhere attained so great 
an elevation before the nebula condensed. At New 
Fork the complete drowning of the city did not 
occur until the downpour from the sky began." 

"Oh! that deluge from the heavens!" cried the 
king. "What we had suffered before seemed but 
little in comparison. It came upon us after night ; 
and the absolute darkness, the awful roaring, the 
terrific force of the falling water, the sense of suf- 
focation, the rapid filling of the barge until the 
water was about our necks — these things drove us 
wild with despair. 

"I tried to sustain my poor queen in my arms, 
but she struggled to seize the children and hold 
them above the water, and in her efforts she escaped 
from my hands, and thenceforth I could find her no 
more. I stumbled about, but it was impossible to 
see ; it was impossible to be heard. At last I fell un- 
conscious face downward, as it afterward appeared, 
upon a kind of bench at the rear end of the barge, 
which was covered with a narrow metallic roofing, 
and raised above the level of the bulwarks. It was 
there that I had tried to shelter the queen and the 
children. 

"In some way I must have become lodged there, 
under the awning, in such a position that the pitch- 
ing of the barge failed to throw me off. I never re- 
gained consciousness until I heard a voice shouting 
in my ear, and felt some one pulling me, and when 
I had recovered my senses, I found myself in the 
submersible." 

"And all your companions were gone?" asked 
Cosmo, in a voice shaking with pity. 

"Yes, oh Lord! All! They have been swept over- 
board by the waves — and would that I had gone 
with them!" 

The poor king broke down again and sobbed. 
After a long pause Cosmo asked gently r 

"Did. the Frenchman tell you how he came upon 
the barge?" 

"He said that in rising to the surface to find out 
the state of things there the submersible came up 
directly under the barge, canting it in such a -way, 



that I was rolled out and he caught me as I was 
swept close to the opening." 

"But how was it that the downpour, entering the 
submersible, when the cover was removed, did not 
fill it with water?" 

"He had the cover so arranged that it served as 
an almost complete protection from the rain. Some 
water did enter, but not much." 

"A wonderful man, that Frenchman," said Cos- 
mo. "He would be an acquisition for me. What 
did he say his name was? Oh, yes, de Beauxchamps 
— I'll make a note of that. I shouldn't wonder if we 
heard of him again." 

Cosmo Versal was destined to encounter Ives de 
Beauxchamps and his wonderful submersible Jides 
Verne sooner, and under more dramatic circum- 
stances than he probably anticipated. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Navigating Over Drowned Europe 

AFTEK the English king had so strangely be- 
come a member of its company the Ark re- 
sumed its course in the direction of what had 
once been Europe. The spot where the meeting 
with the Jvles Verne had occurred was west of Cape i 
Finisterre and, according to the calculations of 
Captain Arms, in longitude fifteen degrees, four 
minutes west, latitude forty-four degrees, nine 
minutes north. 

Cosmo decided to run into the Bay of Biscay, 
skirting its southern coast in order to get a view 
of the Cantabrian Mountains, many of whose 
peaks, he thought, ought still to lie well above the 
level of the water. 

"There are the Peaks of Europa," said Captain 
Arms, "which lie less than twenty miles directly 
back from the coast. The highest point is eight 
thousand six hundred and seventy feet above sea 
level, or what used to be sea level. We could get 
near enough to it, without any danger, to see how 
high the water goes." 

"Do you know the locality?" demanded Cosmo. 

"As well as I know a compass-card!" exclaimed 
the captain. "I've seen the Europa peaks a hun- 
dred times. I was wrecked once on that coast, and 
being of an inquiring disposition, I took the op- 
portunity to go up into the range and see the old 
mines — and a curious sight it was, too. But the 
most curious sight of ail was the shepherdesses of 
Tresvido, dressed just like the men, in homespun 
breeches that never wore out. You'd meet 'em any 
where on the slopes of the Pico del Ferro, cruising 
about with their flocks. And the cheese that they 
made! There never was any such cheese!" 

"Well, if you know the place so well," said Cosmo, 
"steer for it as fast as you can. I'm curious to find 
out just how high this flood has gone, up to the 
present moment." 

"Maybe we can rescue a shepherdess," returned 
the captain, chuckling. "She'd be an ornament "to 
your new Garden of Eden." 

They kept on until, as they approached longitude 
five degrees west, they began to get glimpses of the 
mountains of northern Spain. The coast was all 
under deep water, and also the foot-hills and lower 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



953 



ranges, but some of the peaks could be made out far 
inland. At length, by cautious navigation. Captain 
Arms got the vessel quite close to the old shore line 
of the Asturias, and then he recognized the Europa 
peaks. 

"There they are," he cried. "I'd know *em if 
they'd emigrated to the middle of Africa. There's 
the old Torre de Cerredo and the Pena Santa. 

"How high did you say the main peak is?" asked 
Cosmo. 

"She's eight thousand six hundred and seventy 
feet." 

"From your knowledge of the coast do you think 
it safe to run in closer?" 

"Yes, if you're sure the water is not less than 
two thousand four hundred feet above the old level 
we can get near enough to see the water-line on the 
peaks, from the cro'-nest, which is two hundred 
feet high." 

"Go ahead, then." 

They got closer than they had imagined possible, 
so close that, from the highest lookout on the Ark, 
they were able with their telescopes to see very 
clearly where the water washed the barren moun- 
tainsides at what seemed to be a stupendous eleva- 
tion. 

"I'm sorry about your shepherdesses," said Cos- 
mo, smiling. "I don't think you'd find any there to 
rescue if you could get to them. They must all have 
been lost in the torrents that poured down those 
mountains." 

"More's the pity," said Captain Arms. "That was 
a fine lot of women. There'll be no more cheese like 
what they made at Tresvido." 

Cosmo inquired if the captain's acquaintance with 
the topography of the range enabled him to say how 
high that water was. The captain, after long in- 
spection, declared that he felt sure that it was not 
less than four thousand feet above the old coast 
line. 

"Then," said Cosmo, "if you're right about the 
elevation of what you call the Torre de Cerredo 
there must be four thousand six hundred and 
seventy feet of its upper part still out of water. 
We'll see if that is so." 

Cosmo made the measurements with his instru- 
ments, and announced that the result showed the 
substantial accuracy of Captain Arms' guess. 

"I suspected as much," he muttered. "Those tre- 
mendous downpours, which may have been worse 
elsewhere than where we encountered them, have 
increased the rise nearly seventy per cent above 
what my gages indicated. Now that I know this," 
he continued, addressing the captain: "I'll change 
the course of the Ark. I'm anxious to get into the 
Indian Ocean as soon as possible. It would be a 
great waste of time to go back in order to trass the 
Sahara, and with this increase Of level it isn't nec- 
essary. We'll just set out across southern France, 
keeping along north of the Pyrenees, and so down 
into the region of the Mediterranean." 

Captain Arms was astonished by the boldness of 
this suggestion, and at first he strongly objected to 
their taking such a course. 

"There's some pretty high ground in southern 
France," he said. "There's the Oevennes moun- 



tains, which approach a good long way toward the 
Pyrenees. Are you sure the depth of water is the 
same everywhere?" 

"What a question for an old mariner to ask!" 
returned Cosmo. Don't you know that the level of 
the sea is the same everywhere? The flood doesn't 
make any difference. It seeks its level like any 
other water." 

"But it may be risky steering between those 
mountains," persisted the captain. 

"Nonsense ! As long as the sky is clear you can 
get good observations, and you ought to be navi- 
gator enough not to run on a mountain." 

Cosmo Versal, as usual, was unalterable in his 
resolution — he only changed when he had reasons 
of his own — and the course of the Ark was laid, ac- 
cordingly, for the old French coast of the Landes, 
so low that it was now covered with nearly four 
thousand feet of water. The feelings of the passen- 
gers were deeply stirred when they learned that 
they were actually sailing over buried Europe, and 
they gazed in astonishment at the water beneath 
them, peering down into it as if they sought to dis- 
cover the dreadful secrets that it hid, and talking 
excitedly in a dozen languages. 

The Ark progressed slowly, making not more than 
five or six knots, and on the second day after they 
dropped the Pefias de Europa they were passing 
along the northern flank of the Pyrenees and over 
the basin in which had lain the beautiful city of 
Pau. The view of the Pyrenees from this point had 
always been celebrated as one of the most remark- 
able in the world. 

Now it had lost its beauty, but gained in spectac- 
ular grandeur. All of France, as far as the eye ex- 
tended, was a sea, with long oceanic swells slowly 
undulating its surface. This sea abruptly came to 
an end where it met the mountains, which formed 
for it a coast unlike any that the hundreds of eyes 
which wonderingly surveyed it from the Ark had 
ever beheld. 

Beyond the drowned vales and submerged ranges, 
which they knew lay beneath the watery floor, be- 
fore them, rose the heads of the Pic du Midi, the 
Pic de Ger, the Pic de Bigorre, the Massif du 
Gabizos, the Pic MonnS, and dozens of other famous 
eminences, towering in broken ranks like the bear- 
skins of a "forlorn hope," resisting to the last, in 
pictures of old-time battles. 

Here, owing to the configuration of the drowned 
land it was possible for the Ark to approach quite 
close to some of the wading mountains, and Cosmo 
seized the opportunity to make a new measure of the 
height of the flood, which he found to be surely not 
less than his former estimates had shown. 

Surveying with telescopes the immense shoulders 
of the Monne, the Vicos, the d'Ardiden, and the 
nearer heights, when they were floating above the 
valley of Lourdes, Cosmo and the captain saw the 
terrible effects that had been produced by the tor- 
rents of rain, which had stripped off the vegetation 
green robe had been the glory of the high 
the French side. 

Presently their attention was arrested by some 
moving objects, and at a second glance they per- 
ceived that there were human beings. 



954 



AMAZING STORIES 



"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Cosmo Versal. "There 
are survivors here. They have climbed the moun- 
tains, and found shelter among the rocks. I should 
not have thought it possible." 

"And there are women among them," said Cap- 
tain Arms, lowering his telescope. "You will not 
leave them there!" 

"But what can I do?" 

"Lower away the boats," replied the captain. 
"We've got plenty of them." 

"There may be thousands there," returned Cos- 
mo, musing. "I can't take them all." 

"Then take as many as you can. By gad, sir, I'U 
not leave 'em!" 

By this time some of the passengers who had 
powerful glasses had discovered the refugees on 
the distant heights, and great excitement spread 
throughout the Ark. Cries arose from all parts of 
the vessel: 

"Rescue them!" "Go to their aid!" "Don't let 
them perish!" 

Cosmo Versal was in a terrible quandary. He was 
by no means without humanity, and was capable 
of deep and sympathetic feeling, as we have seen, 
hut he already had as many persons in the Ark as 
he thought ought to be taken, considering the pro- 
vision that had been made, and, besides, he could 
not throw off, at once, his original conviction of the 
necessity of carefully choosing his companions. He 
remained for a long time buried in thought, while 
the captain fumed with impatience, and at last de- 
clared that if Cosmo did not give the order to lower 
away the boats he would do it himself. 

At length Cosmo, yielding rather to his own hu- 
mane feelings than to the urging of others, con- 
eented to make the experiment. Half a dozen levi- 
um launches were quickly lowered and sent off, 
while the Ark, with slowed engines, remained de- 
scribing a circle as near the mountains as it was 
safe to go. Cosmo himself embarked in the leading 
boat. 

The powerful motors of the launches carried them 
rapidly to the high slopes where the unfortunates 
had sought refuge, and as they approached, and the 
poor fugitives saw that deliverance was at hand, 
they began to shout, and cheer, and cry, and many 
of them fell on their knees upon the rocks and 
stretched their hands toward the heavens. 

The launches were compelled to move with great 
caution when they got near the ragged sides of the 
submerged mountains (it was the Peyre Dufau on 
which the people had taken refuge), but the men 
aboard them were determined to effect the rescue, 
and they regarded no peril too closely. At last 
Cosmo's launch found a safe landing, and the others 
quickly followed it. 

When Cosmo sprang out on a fiat rock a crowd 
of men, women, and children, weeping, crying, sob- 
bing, and uttering prayers and blessings, instantly 
surrounded him. Some wrung his hand in an 
ecstasy of joy, some embraced him, some dropped on 
their knees before him and sought to kiss his hands. 
Cosmo could not restrain his tears, and the crews 
of the launches were equally affected. 

Many of these people could only speak the patois 
of the mountains, but some were refugees from the 



resorts in the valleys below, and among these were 
two English tourists who had been caught among 
the mountains by the sudden rising of the flood. 
They exhibited comparative sang froid, and served 
as spokesmen for the others. 

"Bah Jove!" exclaimed one of them, "but you're 
welcome, you know! This has been a demnition 
close call ! But what kind of a craft have you got 
out there?" 

"I'm Cosmo Versal." 

"Then that's the Ark we've heard about! Ton 
honor, I should have recognized you, for I've seen 
your picture often enough. You've come to take us 
off, I suppose?" 

"Certainly," replied Cosmo. "How many are 
there?" 

"All that you see here; about a hundred I should 
say. No doubt there are others on the mountains 
round. There must have been a thousand of us 
when we started, but most of them perished, over- 
come by the downpour, or swept away by the tor- 
rents. Lord Swansdown (indicating his compan- 
ion, who bowed gravely and stiffly) and myself— 
I'm Edward Whistlington — set out to walk over 
the Pyrenees from end to end, after the excitement 
about the great darkness died out, and we got as far 
as the Marbore, and then running down to Gavarnie 
we heard news of the sea rising, but we didn't give 
too much credit to that, and afterward, keeping up 
in the heights, we didn't hear even a rumor from 
the world below. 

"The sky opened on us like a broadside from an 
aerial squadron, and how we ever managed to get 
here I'm sure I can hardly tell. We were actually 
carried down the mountainsides by the water, and 
how it failed to drown us will be an everlasting 
mystery. Somehow, we found ourselves among 
these people, who were trying to go up, assuring 
us that there was nothing but water below. And at 
last we discovered some sort of shelter here — and 
here we've been ever since." 

"You cannot have had much to eat," said Cosmo. 

"Not too much, I assure you," replied the English- 
man, with a melancholy smile. "But these people 
shared with us what little they had, or could find — 
anything and everything that was eatable. They're 
a devilish fine lot, I tell you!" 

"When the terrible rain suddenly ceased and the 
sky cleared," he resumed, "we managed to get dry, 
after a day or two, and since then we've been chew- 
ing leather until there isn't a shoe or a belt left. 
We thought at first of trying to build rafts — but 
then where could we go? It wasn't any use to sail 
out over a drowned country, with nothing in sight 
but the mountains around us, which looked no bet- 
ter than the one we were barely existing on." 

"Then I must get you aboard the Ark before you 
starve," said Cosmo. 

"Many have died of starvation already," returned 
Whistlington. "You can't get us off too quick." 

Cosmo Versal had by this time freed himself of 
every trace of the reluctance which he had at first 
felt to increasing the size of his ship's company by 
adding recruits picked up at random. His sym- 
pathies were thoroughly aroused, and while he has- 
tened the loading and departure of the launches, he 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



955 



asked the Englishmen who, with the impassive en- 
durance of their race, stayed behind to the last, 
whether they thought that there were other refu- 
gees on the mountains whom they could reach. 

"I dare say there are thousands of the poor devils 
on these peaks around us, wandering among the 
rock3," replied Edward Whistlington, "but I fancy 
you couldn't reach 'em." 

"If I see any I'll try," returned Cosmo, sweeping 
with his telescope all the mountain flanks within 
view. 

At last, on the slopes of the lofty Mont Aigu 
across the submerged valley toward the south, he 
caught sight of several human figures, one of which 
was plainly trying to make signals, probably to at- 
tract attention from the Ark. Immediately, with 
the Englishmen and the remainder of those who had 
been found on the Peyre Dufau, he hastened in his 
launch to the rescue. 

They found four men and three women, who had 
escaped from the narrow valley containing the 
bains de Gazost, and who were in the last stages of 
starvation. These were taken aboard, and then, no 
more being in sight, Cosmo returned to the Ark, 
where the other launches had already arrived. 

And these were the last that were rescued from 
the mighty range of the Pyrenees, in whose deep 
valleys had lain the famous resorts of Cauterets, 
the Eaux Bonnes, the Eaux Chaudes, the Bagnieres 
de Luchon, the Bagnieres de Bigorre, and a score of 
others. No doubt, as the Englishmen had said, 
thousands had managed to climb the mountains, but 
none could now be seen, and those who may have 
been there were left to perish. 

There was great excitement in the Ark on the 
■ arrival of the refugees. The passengers over- 
whelmed them with kind attentions, and when they 
had sufficiently recovered, listened with wonder and 
the deepest sympathy to their tales of suffering 
and terror. 

Lord Swansdown and Edward Whistlington were 
amazed to find their king aboard the Ark, and the 
English members of the company soon formed a 
sort of family party, presided over hy the unfortu- 
nate monarch. The rescued persons numbered, in all, 
one hundred and six. 

The voyage of the Ark was now resumed, skirt- 
ing the Pyrenees, but at an increasing distance. 
Finally Captain Arms announced that, according 
to his observations, they were passing over the site 
of the ancient and populous city of Toulouse. This 
recalled to Cosmo Versal's memory the beautiful 
scenes of the fair and rich land that lay so deep 
under the Ark, and he began to talk with the cap- 
tain about the glories of its history. 

He spoke of the last great conqueror that the 
world had known. Napoleon, and was discussing 
his marvelous career, and referring to the fact that 
he had died on a rock in the midst of that very 
ocean which had now swallowed up all the scenes 
of his conquests, when the lookout telephoned down 
that there was something visible on' the water 
ahead. 

In a little while they saw it — a small moving ob- 
ject, which rapidly approached the Ark. As it drew 
nearer both exclaimed at once: 



"The Jules Verne! Here comes the Jules Verne!" 

There could be no mistaking it. It was riding 
with its back just above the level of the sea; tho 
French flag was fluttering from a small mast, and 
already they could perceive the form of de Beaux- 
champs, standing in his old attitude, with his feet 
below the rim of the circular opening at the top. 
Cosmo ordered the Stars and Stripes to be displayed 
in salute, and, greatly pleased over the encounter, 
hurried below and had the companion-ladder made 
ready. 

"He's got to come aboard this time, anyhow!" 
he exclaimed. "I'll take no refusal. I want to know 
that fellow better." 

But this time de Beauxehamps had no thought of 
refusing the hospitalities of the Ark. As soon as 
he was within hearing he called out: 

"My salutations to M. Versal and his charming 
fellow voyagers. May I be permitted to come aboard 
and present myself in person? I have something 
deeply interesting to tell." 

Everybody in the Ark who could find a stand- 
ing-place was watching the Jules Verne and trying 
to catch a glimpse of its gallant captain, and'to hear 
what he said; and the moment his request was pre- 
ferred a babel of voices arose, amid which could be 
distinguished such exclamations as: 

"Let him come!" "A fine fellow!" "Welcome, 
de Beauxehamps !" "Hurrah for the Jules Verne!" 

King Richard was in the fore rank of ±he specta- 
tors, waving his hand to his preserver. 

"Certainly you can come aboard," cried Cosmo 
heartily, at the same time hastening the prepara- 
tions for lowering the ladder. "We are all glad to 
see you. And bring your companions along with 
you," 

CHAPTER XIX. 
To Paris Under the Sea 

DE BEAUXCHAMPS accepted Cosmo Versal's 
invitation to bring his companions with 
him into the Ark. The submersible was 
safely moored alongside, where she rode easily in 
company with the larger vessel, and all mounted 
the companion-ladder. The Frenchman's six com- 
panions were dressed, like himself, in the uniform 
of the army. 

"Curious," muttered Captain Arms in Cosmo's 
ear, "that these soldiers should be the only ones to 
get off— and in a vessel, too. What were the sea- 
men about?" 

"What were our seamen about?" returned Cosmo. 
"How many of them got off? I warned them that 
ships would not do. But it was a bright idea of 
this'de Beauxehamps and his friends to build a 
submersible. It didn't occur to me, or I would have 
advised their construction everywhere for small 
parties. But it would never have done for us. A 
submersible would not have been capacious enough 
for the party I wanted to take." 

By this time the visitors were aboard, and Cosmo 
and the others who could get near enough to grasp 
them by the hand greeted them effusively. King 
Richard received de Beauxehamps with emotion, 
and thanked him. again and again for having saved 



956 



AMAZING STORIES 



his life; but, in the end, he covered his face and 
said in a broken voice: 

"M. de Beauxchamps, my gratitude to you is very 
deep — but, oh, the queen — the queen — and the 
children ! I should have done better to perish with 
them." 

Cosmo and de Beauxchamps soothed him as well 
as they could, and the former led the way into the 
grand saloon, in order that as many as possible 
might see and greet their visitors, who had come so 
mysteriously up out of the sea. 

All of the Frenchmen were as affable as their 
leader, and he presented them in tarn. De Beaux- 
champs conversed almost gaily with such of the 
ladies as had sufficient command of their feelings to 
join the throng that pressed about him and his 
companions. He was deeply touched by the story 
of the recent rescue of his countrymen from the 
Pyrenees, and he went among them, trying to cheer 
them up, with the Man that no misfortune can eradi- 
cate from the Gallic nature. 

At length Cosmo reminded him that he had said 
that he had some interesting new3 to communicate. 

"Yes," said de Beauxchamps, "I have just come 
from a visit to Paris." 

Exclamations of amazement and incredulity were 
heard on all sides. 

"It is true," resumed the Frenchman, though 
now his voice lost. all its gaiety. "I had conceived 
the project of such a visit before I ''met the Ark and 
transferred His Majesty, the King of England, to 
your care. As soon as that was done I set out to 
Make the attempt." 

"But tell me first,'' interrupted Cosmo, "how you 
succeeded in finding the Ark again." 

"That was not very difficult," replied de Beaux- 
champs, smiling. "Of course, it was to some extent 
accidental, for I didn't know that you would be 
here, navigating over France ; but I had an idea that 
you might come this way if you had an intention of 
seeing what had happened to Europe. It is my reg- 
ular custom to rise frequently to the surface to take 
a look around and make surer of my bearings, and 
you know that the Ark makes a pretty large point 
on the waters. I saw it long before you caught sight 
of me." 

"Very well," said Cosmo. "Please go on with 
your story. It must, indeed, be an extraordinary 

"I was particularly desirous of seeing Paris 
again, deep as I knew her to lie under the waves," 
resumed de Beauxchamps, "because it was my home, 
and I had a house in the Champs Elysees. You can- 
not divorce the heart of a Frenchman from his 
home, though you should bury it under twenty 

"Your family were lost?" 

"Thank God, I had no family. If I had had they 
would be with me. My companions are all like my- 
self in that respect. We have lost many friends, 
but no inear relatives. As I was saying, I started 
for France, poor drowned France, as soon as I left 
you. With the powerful search-light of the Jvles 
Verne I could feel confident of avoiding obstruc- 
tions; and, besides, I knew very closely the height 
to which the flood had risen, and having the topo- 



graphy of my country at my fingers' ends, as does 
every officer of the army, I was able to calculate the 
depth at which we should run in order to avoid the 
hilltops." 

"But surely," said Cosmo, "it is impossible — at 
least, it seems so to me — that you can descend to 
any great depth — -the pressure must be tremendous 
a few hundred feet down, to say nothing of pos- 
sible thousands." 

"All that," replied the Frenchman, "has been 
provided for. You probably do not know to what 
extent we had carried experiments in France on 
the deep submersion of submarines before their 
general abandonment when they were prohibited 
by international agreement in war. I was myself 
perhaps the leader in those investigations, and in 
the construction of the Jules Verne I took pains to 
improve on all that had hitherto been done. 

"Without going into any description of my de- 
vices, I may simply remind you that nature has 
pointed out ways of avoiding the consequences of 
the inconceivable pressures which calculation indi- 
cates at depths of a kilometer, or more, in her con- 
struction of the deep-sea fishes. It was by a study 
of them that I arrived at the secret of both pene- 
trating to depths that would theoretically have 
seemed entirely impossible and of remaining at such 
depths." 

"Marvelous!" exclaimed Cosmo; "marvelous be- 
yond belief!" 

"I may add," continued de Beauxchamps, smiling 1 
at the effect that his words had had upon the mind 
of the renowned Cosmo Versal, "that the peculiar 
properties of levium, which you so wisely chose for 
your Ark, aided me in quite a different way. But I 
must return to my story. 

"We passed over the coast of France near the 
point where I knew lay the mouth of the Loire. I 
could have found my way by means of the com- 
pass sufficiently well; but since the sky was clear I 
frequently came to the surface in order, for greater 
certainty, to obtain sights of the sun and stars. 

"I dropped down at Tours and at Blois, and we 
plainly saw the walls of the old chateaux in the 1 
gleam of the search-light below us. There were, 
monsters of the deep, such as the eye of man never 
beheld, swimming slowly about them, many of them 
throwing a strange luminosity into the water from 
their phosphorescent organs, as if they were in- 
specting these novelties of the sea-bottom. 

"Arriving over Orleans, we turned in the direc- 
tion of Paris. As we approached the site of the city 
I sank the submersible until we almost touched the 
higher hills. My search-light is so arranged that 
it can be directed almost every way— up, down, to 
this side, and to that — and we swept it round us in 
every direction. 

"The light readily penetrated the water and re- 
vealed sights which I have no power to describe, 
and some— reminders of the immense population 
of human beings which had there met its end — ' 
which I would not describe if I could. To see a 
drowned face suddenly appear outside the window, 
almost within touch — ah, that was too horrible! 

"We passed over Versailles, with the old palace 
still almost intact; over Sevres, with it3 porcelain 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



957 



manufactory yet in part standing — the tidal waves 
that had come up the river from the sea evidently 
eansed much destruction just before the downpour 
began — and finally we 'entered' Paris. 

'!We could see the embankments of the Seine be- 
neath ua as we passed up its course from the Point 
du Jour. From the site of the Champ de Mars I 
turned northward in search of the older part of 
the Champs Elysees, where my house was, and we 
came upon the great Arc de Triomphe, which, you 
remember, dates from the time of Napoleon. 

"It was apparently uninjured, even the huge 

bronze groups remaining in their places, and the 

search-light, traversing its face, fell upon the heroic 

group of the Marseillaise on the east facade. You 

1 must have seen that, M. Versal?" 

"Yes, many a time," Cosmo replied. "The fury 
in the face of the female figure representing the 
spirit of war, chanting the 'Marseillaise,' and, 
sword in hand, sweeping over the heads of the 
soldiers, is the most terrible thing of human making 
that I ever looked upon." 

"It was not so terrible as another thing that our 
startled eyes saw there," said de Beauxchamps. 
"Coiled round the upper part of the Arch, with its 
head resting directly upon that of the figure of 
which you speak, was a monstrous, ribbon-shaped 
creature, whose flat, reddish body, at least a meter 
in width and apparently thirty meters long, and 
bordered with a sort of floating frill of a pinkish 
color, undulated with a motion that turned us sick 
at heart. 

"But the head was the most awful object that the 
fancy of a madman could conceive. There were two 
great round, projecting eyes, encircled with what 
I suppose must have been phosphorescent organs, 
■which spread around in the water a green light that 
was absolutely horrifying. 

"I turned away the search-light, and the eyes of 
that creature stared straight at us with a dread- 
ful, stony look; and then the effect of the phos- 
phorescence, heightened by the absence of the 
greater light, became more terrible than before. 
We were unmanned, and I hardly had nerve enough 
to turn the submersible away and hurry from the 
neighborhood." 

"I had not supposed," said Cosmo, "that creatures 
of such a size could live in the deeper parts of the 
sea." 

"I know," returned de Beauxchamps, "that many 
have thought that the abysmal creatures were 
generally of small size, but they knew nothing about 
it. What could one have expected to learn of the 
secrets of life in the ocean depths from the small 
creatures which alone the trawls brought to the 
surface? The great monsters could not be captured 
in that way. But we have seen them — seen them 
taking possession of beautiful, drowned Paris — and 
■we know what they are." 

The fascinated hearers who had crowded about 
to listen to the narrative of de Beauxchamps shud- 
dered at this part of it, and some of the women 
turned away with exclamations of horror. 

"I see that I am drawing my picture in too 
fearful colors," he said, "and I shall refrain from 
telling of the other inhabitants of the abyss that 



we found in possession of what I, aa a Frenchman, 
must call the most splendid capital that the world 
contained. 

"Oh, to think that all that beauty, all those great 
palaces filled with the masterworks of art, all those 
proud architectural piles, all that scene of the most 
joyous life that the earth contained, is now become 
the dwelling-place of the terrible fauna of the deep, 
creatures that never saw the sun; that never felt 
the transforming force of the evolution which had 
made the face of the globe so glorious; that never 
quitted their abysmal home3 until this awful flood 
spread their empire over the whole earth!" 

There was a period of profound silence while de 
Beauxchamps's face worked spasmodically under 
the influence of emotions, the sight of which would 
alone have sufficed to convince his hearers of the 
truth of what he had been telling. Finally Cosmo 
Versal, breaking the silence, asked: 
"Did you find your home?" 

"Yes. It was there. I found it out. I illuminated! 
it with the 3earch-light. I gazed into the broken 
windows, trying to peer through the watery medium 
that filled and darkened the interior. The roof 
was broken, but the walls were intact. I thought 
of the happy, happy years that I had passed there 
when I had a family, and when Paris was an Eden, 
the sunshine of the world. And then I wished to 
see no more, and we rose out of the midst of that 
sunken city and sought the daylight far above. 

"I had thought to tell you," he continued, after 
a pause, "of the condition in which we found the 
great monuments of the city — of the Pantheon, yet 
standing on its hill with its roof crushed in; of 
Notre Dame — a wreck, but the towers still standing 
proudly; of the old palace of the Louvre, through 
whose broken roofs and walls we caught glimpses 
of the treasures washed by the water within — but I 
find that I have not courage to go on. I had 
imagined that it would be a relief to speak of these 
things, but I do not find it so." 

"After leaving Paris, then, you made no other 
explorations?" said Cosmo. 

"None. I would have had no heart for more. 
I had seen enough. And yet I do not regret that I 
went there. I should never have been content not 
to have seen my beautiful city once more, even lying 
in her watery shroud. I loved her living; I have 
seen her dead. It is finished. What more is there, 
M. Versal?" With a sudden change of manner: 
"You have predicted ail this, and perhaps you know 
more. Where do we go to die?" 

"We shall not die," replied Cosmo Versal force- 
fully. "The Ark and your Jules Verne will save us." 
"To what purpose?" demanded the Frenchman, 
his animation all gone. "Can there be any plea- 
sure in floating upon or beneath the waves that 
cover a lost world? Is a brief prolongation of such 
a life worth the effort of grasping for?" 

"Yes," said Cosmo with still greater energy. "We 
may still save the race. I have ehosen most of my 
companions in the Ark for that purpose. Not only 
may we save the race of man, but we may lead it up 
upon a higher plane; we may apply the principles 
of eugenics as they have never yet been applied. 
You, M. de Beauxchamps, have shown that you are 



958 



AMAZING STORIES 



of the stock that is required for the regeneration of 
the world." 

"But where can the world be regenerated?" asked 
de Beauxchamps with a bitter laugh. "There is 
nothing left but mountain-tops." 

"Even they will be covered," said Cosmo. 

"Do you mean that the deluge has not yet reached 
its height?" 

"Certainly it has not. We are in an open space in 
the enveloping nebula. After a little we shall enter 
the nucleus, and then will come the worst." 

"And yet you talk of saving the race!" exclaimed 
the Frenchman with another bitter laugh. 

"I do," replied Cosmo, "and it will be done." 

"But how?" 

"Through the reemergence of land." 

"That recalls our former conversation," put in 
Professor Abel Able. "It appears to me impossible 
that, when the earth is once covered with a univer- 
sal ocean, it can ever disappear or materially lower 
its level. Geological ages would be required for 
the level of the water to be lowered even a few 
feet by the escape of vapor into space." 

"No," returned Cosmo Versal, "I have demon- 
strated that that idea is wrong. Under the immense 
pressure of an ocean rising six miles above the 
.ancient sea level the water will rapidly be forced 
into the interstices of the crust, and thus a ma- 
terial reduction of level will be produced within a 
few years — five at the most. That will give us 
a foothold. I have no doubt that even now the 
water around us is slightly lowering through that 
cause. 

"Hut in itself that will not be sufficient. I have 
gone all over this ground in my original calcula- 
tions. The intrusion of the immense masa of ocean 
water into the interior of the crust of the earth will 
result in a grand geological upheaval. The lands 
will reemerge above the new sea level as they 
emerged above the former one through the internal 
stresses of the globe." 

The scientific men present listened with breath- 
less interest, but some of them with many incredul- 
ous shakings of the head. 

"You must be aware," continued Cosmo, ad- 
dressing them particularly, "that it has been demon- 
strated that the continents and the great mountain 
ranges are buoyed up, and, as it were, are floating 
somewhat like slags on the internal magma. The 
mean density of the crust is less under the land 
and the mountains than under the old seabeds. This 
is especially true of the Himalayan region. 

"That uplift is probably the most recent of all, 
and it is there, where at present the highest land 
of the globe exists, that I expect that the new up- 
heaval will be most 3trongly manifested. It is for 
that reason, and not merely because it is now the 
highest part of the earth, that I am going with the 
Ark to Asia." 

"But," said Professor Jeremiah Moses, "the up- 
heaval of which you speak may produce a complete 
revolution in the surface of the earth, and if new 
!and3 are upthrust they may appear at unexpected 
points." 

"Not at all," returned Cosmo. "The tectonic 
features of the globe were fixed at the beginning. 



As Asia has hitherto been the highest and the great- 
est mass of land, it will continue to be so in 
the future. It is there, believe me, that we shall 
replant the seed of humanity." 

"Do you not think," asked Professor Alexander 
Jones, "that there will be a tremendous outburst 
of volcanic energy, if such upheavals occur, and 
may not that render the reemerging lands unin- 
habitable?" 

"No doubt," Cosmo replied, "every form of 
Plutonic energy will be immensely reenforced. You 
remember the recent outburst of all the volcanoes 
when the sea burst over the borders of the con- 
tinents. But these forces will be mainly expended 
in an effort of uplifting. Unquestionably there will 
be great volcanic spasms, but they will not pre- 
vent the occupation of the broadening areas of land 
which will not be thus affected." 

"Upon these lands," exclaimed Sir Wilfred Athel- 
stqne, in a loud voice, "I will develop life from the 
barren minerals of the crust. The age of chemical 
parthenogenesis will then have dawned upon the 
earth, and man will have become a creator." 

"Will the Sir Englishman give me room for a 
word!" cried Costake Theriade, raising his tall 
form on his toes and agitating his arms in the air. 
"He will create not anything! It is I that will un- 
loose the energies of the atoms of matter and make 
of the new man a new god." 

Cosmo Vers&l quieted the incipient outbreak of 
his jealous "speculative geniuses," and the discus- 
sion of his theory was continued for some time. At 
length de Beauxchamps, shrugging his shoulders, 
exclaimed, with a return of his habitual gaiety : 

"Tris Men! Vive the world of Cosmo Versal! 
I salute the new Eve that is to cornel" 

CHAPTER XX 
The Adventures in Colorado 

WHEN Professor Pludder, the President and 
their companions on the aeroraft, saw the 
three men on the bluff motioning and 
shouting to them, they immediately sought the 
means of bringing their craft to land. This did 
not prove to be exceedingly difficult, for there was a 
convenient rock with deep water around it on which 
they could disembark. 

The men ran down to meet them, and to help them 
ashore, exhibiting the utmost astonishment at see- 
ing them there. 

"Whar in creation did you come from?" exclaimed 
one, giving the professor a pull up the bank. "Meb- 
be you're Cosmo Versal, and that's yer Ark." 

"I'm Professor Pludder, and this is the Presi- 
dent of the United States." 

"The President of the Un— See here, stranger, 
I'll take considerable from you, considering the fix 
yer in, but you don't want to go too fur." 

"It's true," asseverated the Professor. "This 
gentleman is the President, and we've escaped from 
Washington. Please help the ladies." 

"I'll help the ladies all right, but I'm blamed 
if I believe yer yarn. How'd you git here? You 
couldn't hev floated across the continent on that 
thing." 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



959 



"We came on the raft that you see," interrupted 
Mr. Samson. "We left the Appalachian Mountains 
two weeks ago." 

"Well, by — it must be true!" muttered the man. 
"They couldn't hev come from anywhar else in 
that direction. I reckon the hull blamed continent 
is under water." 

"So it is," said Professor Pludder, "and we made 
for Colorado knowing that it was the only land left 
above the flood." 

All finally got upon the bluff, rejoiced to feel solid 
ground once more beneath their feet. But it was a 
desolate prospect that they saw before them. The 
face of the land had been scoured and gullied by the 
pouring waters, the vegetation had been stripped 
off, except where in hollows it had been covered 
with new-formed lakes, some of which had drained 
off after the downpour ceased, the water finding its 
way into the enveloping sea. 

They asked the three men what had become of the 
other inhabitants, and whether there was any 
shelter at hand. 

"We've be'n wiped out," aaid the original spokes- 
man. "Cosmo Versal ha3 done a pretty clean job 
with his flood. There's a kind of a cover that we 
three hev built, a ways back yonder, out o' timber 
o' one kind and another that was lodged about. But 
it wouldn't amount to much if there was another 
cloudburst. It wouldn't stand a minute. It's good 



to i 



> in. ' 



"Are you the only survivors in this region?" 
asked the' President, 

"I reckon you see all thet's left of us. The' ain't 
one out o' a hundred that's left alive in these 
parts." 

"What became of them?" 

"Swept off!" replied the man, with an~expressive 
gesture — "and drownded right out under the sky." 

"And how did you and your company escape? 

"By gitting up amongst some rocks that was 
higher'n the average." 

"How did you manage to live — what did you have 
to eat?" 

"We didn't eat much — we didn't hev much time 
to think o' eatin'. We had one hoss with us, and 
he served, when his time come. After the sky 
cleared we skirmished about and dug up something 
that we could manage to eat, lodged in gullies where 
the water had washed together what had been in 
houses and cellars. We've got a gun and a little 
ammunition, and once in a while we could kill an 
animal that had contrived to escape somehow." 

"And you think that there are no other human 
beings left alive anywhere around here?" 

"I know th' ain't. The's probably some up in the 
foot-hills, and around the Pike. They had a better 
chance to git among rocks. We hed jest made up 
our minds to go hunting for 'em when we ketched 
sight o' you, and then we concluded to stay and 
see who you was." 

"I'm surprised that you didn't go sooner." 

"We couldn't. There was a roarin' torrent com- 
ing down from the mountains that cut us off. It's 
only last night that it stopped." 

"Well, it's evident that we cannot stay here," 
said Professor Pludder. "We must go with these 



men toward the mountains. Let us take what's 
left of the compressed provisions out of the raft, 
and then we'll eat a good meal and be off." 

The three men were invited to share the repast, 
and they ate with an appetite that would have 
amused their hosts if they had not been so anxious 
to reserve as much as possible of their provisions 
for future necessities. 

The meal finished, they started off, their new- 
friends aiding to carry provisions, and what little 
extra clothing there was. The aspect of the country 
they traversed affrighted them. Here and there 
were partially demolished houses or farm struc- 
tures, or cellars, choked with debris of what had 
once been houses. 

Farm implements and machinery were scattered 
about and half buried in the torrent-furrowed land. 
In the wreck of one considerable village through 
which they passed they found a stone church, and 
several stone houses of considerable pretentions, 
standing almost intact as to walls, but with roofs, 
doors and windows smashed and torn off. 

It was evident that this place, which lay in a 
depression of the land, had been buried by the 
rushing water as high as the top stories of the 
buildings. From some of the 3ights that they saw 
they shrank away, and afterward tried to forget 
them. 

Owing to the presence of the women and chil- 
dren their progress was slower than it might other- 
wise have been. They had great difficulty in cross- 
ing the course of the torrent which their compan- 
ions had described as cutting them off from the 
foot-hills of the Pike's Peak range. 

The water had washed out a veritable canon, a 
hundred or more feet deep in places, and with rag- 
ged, precipitous walls and banks, which they had to 
descend on one side and ascend on the other. Here 
the skill and local knowledge of their three new- 
found friends stood them in good stead. There wa3 
yet enough water in the bottom of the great gully to 
compel them to wade, carrying the women and 
children. 

But, just before nightfall, they succeeded in reach- 
ing a range of rocky heights, where they deter- 
mined to pass the night. They managed to make a 
fire with brush that had been swept down the moun- 
tain flanks and had remained wedged in the rocks, 
and thus they dried their soaked garments, and 
were able to do some cooking, and to have a blaze 
to give them a little heat during the night, for 
the air turned cold after the disappearance of the 
sun. 

When the others had sunk into an uneasy slum- 
ber, the President and Professor Pludder sat long, 
replenishing the fire, and talking of their future 
course. 

"I think," said the professor, "that we shall find 
a considerable population alive among the moun- 
tains. There is nothing in Colorado below four 
thousand feet elevation, and not much, below five 
thousand. The great inner 'parks' were probably 
turned into lakes, but they will drain off, as the 
land around us here has done already, 

"Those who managed to find places of comparative 
shelter will now descend into the level lands and 



960 



AMAZING STORIK8 



try to hunt up the site of their homes. If only 
some plants and grain have been preserved they can, 
after a fashion, begin to cultivate the soil." 

"But there is no soil," said the President, shud- 
dering at the recollection of the devastation he had 
witnessed. It has all been washed off." 

"No," replied the professor, "there's yet a good 
deal in the low places, where the water rested." 

"But it is now the middle of winter." 

"Reckoned by the almanac it is, but you see that 
the temperature is that of summer, and has been 
such for months. I think that this is due in some 
way to the influence of the nebula, although I can- 
not account for it. At any rate it will be possible 
to plant and sow. 

"The whole body of the atmosphere having been 
raised four thousand feet, the atmospheric condi- 
tions here now are virtually the same as at the for- 
mer sea-level. If we can find the people and re- 
assure them, we must take the lead in restoring the 
land to fertility, and also in the reconstruction of 
homes." 

"Suppose the flood should recommence?" 

"There is no likelihood of it." 

"Then," said the President, putting his face be- 
tween his hands and gazing sadly into the fire, 
"here is all that remains of the mightiest nation 
of the world, the richest, the most populous — and 
we are to build up out of this remnant a new 
fatherland." 

"This is not the only remnant," said Professor 
Pludder, One-quarter, at least, of the area of the 
United States is still above sea-level. Think of 
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, the larger 
part of California, Wyoming, a part of Montana, 
two-thirds of Idaho, a half of Oregon and Washing- 
ton — all above the critical level of four thousand 
feet, and all except the steepest mountain-sides can 
be reclaimed. 

"There is hope for our country yet Remem- 
ber that the climate of this entire region will now 
be changed, since the barometric isobars have been 
lifted up, and the line of thirty inches pressure 
now meets the edge of the Colorado plateau. There 
may be a corresponding change in the rainfall and 
in all the conditions of culture and fertility." 

"Yes," sighed the President, "but I cannot, I can- 
not withdraw my mind from the thought of the 
millions, milUoits, millions who have perished!" 

"I do not say that we should forget them," re- 
plied Professor Pludder; "Heaven forbid! But I 
do say that we must give our attention to those that 
remain, and turn our faces steadily toward the 
future." 

"Abiel," returned the President, pressing the 
professor's hand, "you are right. My confidence in 
you was shaken, but now I follow you again." 

Thus they talked until midnight, and then got 
a little rest with the others. They were up and off 
at break of day, and as they mounted higher they 
began to encounter immense rocks that had come 
tumbling down from above. 

"How can you talk of people escaping toward the 
mountains if they had to encounter these?" de- 
manded the President 

"Some of these rocks have undoubtedly been 



brought down by the torrents," Professor Pludder 
replied, "but I believe that the greater number fell 
earlier, during the earthquakes that accompanied 
the first invasions of the sea." 

"But those earthquakes may have continued all 
through." 

"I do not think so. We have felt no trembling 
of the earth. I believe that the convulsions lasted 
only for a brief period, while the rocks were yield- 
ing to the pressure along the old sea-coast. After 
a little the crust below adjusted itself to the new 
conditions. And even if the rocks fell while people 
were trying to escape from the flood below, they 
must, like the water, have followed the gorges and 
hollow places, while the fugitives would, of eourso, 
keep upon the ridges." 

Whatever perils they may have encountered, peo- 
ple had certainly escaped as the professor had 
averred. When the party, in the middle of the day, 
were seated at their lunch, on an elevated point 
from which they could see far over the strange 
ocean that they had left behind them, while the 
southern buttresses of Pike's Peak rose steeply to- 
ward the north, they discovered the first evidence of 
the existence of refugees in the mountains. This 
was a smoke rising over an intervening ridge, 
which their new companions declared could be due 
to nothing less than a large camp-fire. 

They hastened to finish their meal, and then 
climbed the ridge. As soon as they reached it they 
found themselves looking down into a broad, shallow 
canon, where there were nearly twenty rudely con- 
structed cabins, with a huge fire blazing in the 
midst of the place, and half a dozen red-shirted men 
busy about it, evidently occupied in the preparation 
of the dinner of a large party, 

Their friends recognized an acquaintance in one 
of the men below and hailed him with delight. In- 
stantly men, women and children came running out 
of the huts to look at them, and as they descended 
into this improvised village they were received 
with a hospitality that was almost hilarious. 

The refugees consisted of persons who had 
escaped from the lower lands in the immediate 
vicinity, and they were struck dumb when told that 
they were entertaining the President of the United 
States and his family. 

The entire history of their adventures was re- 
lated on both sides. The refugees told how, at the 
commencement of the great rain, when it became 
evident that the water would inundate their farms 
and buildings, they loaded themselves with as many 
provisions as they could carry, and, in spite of the 
suffocating downpour that filled the air, managed 
to fight their way to the ridge overhanging the 
deep cut in which they were now encamped. 

Hardly a quarter of those who started arrived 
in safety. They sheltered themselves to the number 
of about thirty, in a huge cavern, which faced down 
the mountain, and had a slightly upward sloping 
floor, so that the water did not enter. Here, by 
careful economy, they were able to eke out their 
provisions until the sky cleared, after which the 
men, being used to outdoor labor and hunting, 
contrived to supply the wants of the forlorn Uttfe 
community. 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



961 



They managed to kill a few animals, end found 
the bodies of others reoently killed, or drowned. 
Later they descended into the lowlands, as the water 
ran off, and searching among the ruins of their 
houses found some remnants of supplies in the cel- 
lars and about the foundations of the barns. They 
were preparing to go down in a body and seek to 
reestablish themselves on the sites of their old 
homes, when the President's party came upon them. 

The meeting with these refugees wa3 but the first 
of a series of similar encounters on the way along 
the eastern face of the Pike's Peak range. In the 
aggregate they met several hundred survivors who 
had established themselves on the site of Colorado 
Springs, where a large number of houses, standing 
on the higher ground, had escaped. 

They had been soaked with water, descending 
through the shattered roofs and broken windows, 
and pouring into the basements and cellars; the 
fugitives came from all directions, some from the 
caverns on the mountains, and some from the rocks 
toward the north and east, A considerable number 
asserted that they had found refuge in the Garden 
of the Gods. 

As near as could be estimated, about a quarter 
of the population remained alive. The strong points 
of Professor Pludder now, once more, came out 
conspicuously. He proved himself an admirable 
organizer. He explored all the country round, and 
enheartened everybody, setting them to work to 
repair the damage as much as possible. 

Some horses and cattle were found whichTfol low- 
ing their instincts, had managed to escape the flood. 
In the houses and other buildings yet standing a 
great deal of food and other supplies was dis- 
covered, so that there was no danger of a famine. 
As he had anticipated, the soil had not all been 
washed away from the flat land, and he advised the 
inhabitants to plant quick-growing seeds at once. 

He utilized the horses to send couriers in all direc- 
tions, some going even as far as Denver. Every- 
where virtually the same conditions were found — 
many had escaped and were alive, only needing the 
guidance of a quicker intelligence, and this was sup- 
plied by the advice which the professor instructed 
his envoys to spread among the people. He sought 
to cheer them still more by the information that the 
President was among them, and looking out for 
their welfare. 

One thing which his couriers at last began to 
report to him was a cause of surprise. They said 
that the level of the water was rapidly falling. 
Some who had gone far toward the east declared 
that it had gone down hundreds of feet. But the 
professor reflected that this was impossible, because 
evaporation could not account for it, and he could 
not persuade himself that so much water could have 
found its way into the interior of the crust. 

He concluded that his informants had allowed 
their hopes to affect their eyesight, and, strong as 
usual in his professional dogmas, he made no per- 
sonal examination. Besides, Professor Pludder 
was beginning to be shaken in his first belief that 
all trouble from the nebula was at an end. Once 
having been forced to accept the hypothesis that a 



watery nebula had met the earth, he began to reflect 
that they might not be through with it. 

In any event, he deemed it wise to prepare for it 
if it should come back. Accordingly he advised that 
the population that remained should concentrate in 
the stronger houses, built of stone, and that every 
effort should be made to strengthen them further 
and to make the roofs as solid as possible. He also 
directed that no houses should be occupied that were 
not situated on high ground, surrounded with slopes 
that would give ready flow to the water in case the 
deluging rain should recommence. 

He had no fixed convietion that it would recom- 
mence, but he was uneasy, owing to hiB reflections, 
and wished to be on the safe side. He sent similar* 
instructions as far as his horsemen could reach. 

The wisdom of his doubts became manifest about 
two weeks after the arrival of the President's party. 
Without warning the sky, which had been perfectly 
blue and cloudless for a month, turned a sickly yel- 
low. Then mists hid the head, and in a little while 
the entire outline of Pike's Peak, and after that a 
heavy rain began. 

Terror instantly seized the people, and at first 
nobody ventured out of doors. But as time went on 
and the rain did not assume the proportions of the 
former debacle, although it was very heavy and con- 
tinuous, hope revived. Everybody was on the watch 
for a sudden clearing up. 

Instead of clearing, however, the rain became 
very irregular, gushing at time in torrents which 
were even worse than the original downpour, but 
these tremendous gushes were of brief duration, so 
that the water had an opportunity to run off the 
higher ground before the next downpour occurred. 

This went on for a week, and then the people 
were terrified at finding that water was pouring up 
through all the depressions of the land, cutting off 
the highlands from Pike's Peak with an arm of the 
sea. It was evident that the flood had been rapidly 
rising, and if it should rise but little higher they 
would be caught in a trap. The inland sea, it was 
clear, had now invaded the whole of Colorado to the 
feet of the mountains, and was creeping up on them. 

Just at this time a series of earthquakes began. 
They were not severe, but were continuous. The 
ground cracked open in places, and some houses 
were overturned, but there were no wall -shattering 
shocks— only a continual and dreadful trembling, 
accompanied by awful subterranean sounds. 

This terrible state of affairs had lasted for a day 
before a remarkable discovery was made, which 
filled many hearts with joy, although it seemed to 
puzzle Professor Pludder as much as it rejoiced him. 

The new advance of the sea was arrested! There 
could be no question of that, for too many had 
anxiously noted the points to which the water had 
attained. 

We have said that Professor Pludder was puz- 
zled. He was seeking, in his mind, a connection 
between the seismic tremors and the cessation of 
the advance of the sea. Inasmuch as the downpour 
continued, the flood ought still to rise. 

He rejected as soon as it occurred to him the idea 
that the earth could be drinking up the waters as 
fast as they fell, and the idea that the trembling 



962 



AMAZING STORIES 



was an accompaniment of this gigantic deglutition. 

Sitting in a room with the President and other 
members of the party from Washington, he re- 
mained buried in his thoughts, answering inquiries 
only in monosyllables. Presently he opened his eyes 
very wide and a long-drawn "A-ah!" came from his 
mouth. Then he sprang to his feet and cried out, 
but only as if uttering a thought aloud to himself: 

"The batkolite!" 

CHAPTER XXI 
"The Father of Horror" 

AT the time when the President of the United 
States and his companions were beginning 
to discover the refugees around Pike's Peak, 
Cosmo Versal's Ark accompanied by the J ides 
Verne, -whose commander had decided to remain in 
touch with hi3 friends, was crossing the submerged 
hills and valleys of Languedoc under a sun aa bril- 
liant as that which had once made them a land of 
gold. De Beauxchamps remained aboard the Ark 
much of the time. 

Cosmo liked to have him with himself and Cap- 
tain Arms on the bridge, because there they could 
talk freely about their plans and prospects, and the 
Frenchman was a most entertaining companion. 

Meanwhile, the passengers in the saloons and on 
the promenade decks formed little knots and coteries 
for conversation, for reading, and for mutual diver- 
sion, or strolled about from side to side, watching 
the endless expanse of waters for the occasional ap- 
pearance of some inhabitant of the deep that had 
wandered over the new ocean's bottom. 

These seemed to he coming to the surface to get 
bearings. Every such incident reminded them of 
what lay beneath the waves, and led them to think 
and talk of the awful fate that had overwhelmed 
their fellow men, until the spirits of the most care- 
less were subdued by the pervading melancholy. 

King Richard, strangely enough, had taken a lik- 
ing for Amos Blank, who was frequently asked to 
join the small and somewhat exclusive circle of 
compatriots that continually surrounded the fallen 
monarch. The billionaire and the king often leaned 
elbow to elbow over the rail, and put their heads 
companionably together while pointing out some ob- 
ject on the sea. Lord Swansdown felt painfully cut 
by this, but, of course, he could offer no objection. 

Finally Cosmo invited the king to come upon the 
bridge, from which passengers were generally ex- 
cluded, and the king insisted that Blank should go, 
too. Cosmo consented, for Blank seemed to him to 
have become quite a changed man, and was some- 
times full of practical suggestions. 

So it happened that when Captain Arms an- 
nounced that the Ark was passing over the aneient 
city of Carcassonne, Cosmo, the king, de Beaux- 
champs, Amos Blank, and the captain were all to- 
gether on the bridge. When Captain Arms men- 
tioned their location. King Richard became very 
thoughtful. After musing for a time he said: 

"Ah! how all these names, Toulouse, Carcassonne, 
Languedoc, bring back to me the memory of my 
namesake of olden times, Richard I of England. 
This, over which we are floating, was the land of the 



Troubadours, and Richard was the very Prince of 
Troubadours. With all his faults England never 
had a king like him!" 

"Knowing your devotion to peace, which was the 
reason why I wished you to be of the original com- 
pany in the Ark, I am surprised to hear you say 
that," said Cosmo. 

"Ah! But Cceur de Lion was a true Englishman, 
even in his love of fighting. What would he say if 
he knew where England lies to-day? What would 
he say if he knew the awful fate that had come upon 
this fair and pleasant land, from whose poets and 
singers he learned the art of minstrelsy?" 

"He would say, 'Do not despair,' " returned Cos- 
mo. " 'Show the courage of an Englishman, and 
light for your race if you cannot for your country.' " 

"But may not England, may not all these lands, 
emerge again from the floods?" asked the king. 

"Not in our time, not in our children's time," re- 
plied Cosmo Versal, thoughtfully shaking his head. 
"In the remote future, yes — but I cannot tell how 
remote. Tibet was once an appanage of your crown, 
before China taught tbe West what war meant, and 
in Tibet you may help to found a new empire, but 
I must tell you that it will not resemble the empires 
of the past. Democracy will be its corner-stone, 
and science its law. 

"Then I devote myself to democracy and science," 
responded King Richard. 

"Good ! Admirable 1" exclaimed Amos Blank and 
de Eeauxchamps simultaneously, while Captain 
Arms seemed on the point of patting the king on the 
back. But his attention, together with that of the 
others, was distracted by a huge whale blowing al- 
most directly in the course of the Ark. 

"Blessed if I ever expected to see a sight like 
that in these parts!" exclaimed the captain. "This 
lifting the ocean up into the sky is upsetting the 
order of nature. I'd as soon expect to sight a 
cachalot on top of the Rocky Mountains." 

"They'll be there, too, before long," said Cosmo. 

"I wonder what he's looking for," continued Cap- 
tain Arms. "He must have come down from the 
north. He couldn't have got in through the 
Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevadas. He's just navi- 
gated right over the whole country, straight down 
from the channel." 

The whale sounded at the approach of the Ark, 
but in a little while he wa3 blowing again off to- 
ward the south, and then the passengers caught 
Bight of him, and there was great excitement. 

He seemed to be of enormous size, and he sent 
his fountain to an extraordinary height in the air. 
On he went, appearing and disappearing, steering 
direet for Africa, until, only with glasses, could 
they see his white plume blowing on the horizon. 

Not even the reflection that they themselves were 
sailing over Europe impressed some of the pas- 
sengers with so vivid a sense of their situation as 
the sight of this monstrous inhabitant of the ocean 
taking a view of his new domain. 

At night Cosmo continued the concerts and the 
presentation of the Shakespearian dramas, and for 
an hour each afternoon he had a "conference" in 
the saloon,' at which Theriade and Sir Athelstone 
were almost the sole performers. 



THE SECOND DELDGE 



963 



Their disputes, and Cosmo's efforts to keep the 
peace, amused for a while, but at length the audi- 
ences diminished until Cosmo himself, with his con- 
stant companions, the Frenchman, the king, Amos 
Blank, the three professors from Washington, and 
a few other savants were the only listeners. 

But the music and the plays always drew im- 
mensely. Joseph Smith was kept busy most of the 
time in Cosmo's cabin, copying plans for the re- 
generation of mankind. 

When they knew that they had passed over the 
borders of France and were sailing above the 
Mediterranean Sea, it became necessary to lay their 
course with considerable care. Cosmo decided that 
the only safe plan would be to run south of Sardinia, 
and then keep along between Sicily and Tunis, and 
so on toward lower Egypt. 

There he intended to seek a way over the moun- 
tains north of the Sinai peninsula into the Syrian 
desert, from which he could reach the ancient valley 
of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. He would 
then pass down the Arabian Sea, swing round India, 
and Ceylon, and, by way of the Bay of Bengal and 
the plains of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, ap- 
proach the Himalayas. 

Captain Arms was rather inclined to follow the 
Gulf of Suez and the depression of the Bed Sea, 
but Cosmo was afraid that they would have dif- 
ficulty in getting the Ark safely through between 
the Mt. Sinai peaks and the Jebel Gharib range. 

"Well, you're the commodore," said the captain 
at the end of the discussion, "but hang me if I'd 
not rather follow a sea, where I know the courses, 
than go navigating over mountains and deserts in 
the land of Shinar. We'll land on top of Jerusalem 
yet, you'll see!" 

Feeling sure of plenty of water under keel, they 
now made better speed, and de Beauxchamps retired 
into the Jules Verne, and detached it from the Ark, 
finding that he could distance the latter easily with 
the submersible running just beneath the surface 
of the water. 

"Come up to blow, and take a look around from 
the bridge, once in a while," the captain called out 
to him as he disappeared and the cover closed over 
him. The Jules Verne immediately sank out of 
sight. 

They passed round Sardinia, and between the 
old African coast and Sicily, and were approaching 
the Malta Channel, when their attention was drawn 
to vast smoke far off toward the north. 

"It's Etna in eruption," said Cosmo to the cap- 
tain. 

"A magnificent sight!" exclaimed King Richard, 
who happened to be on the bridge. 

"Yes, and I'd like to see it nearer," remarked 
Co3mo, as a wonderful column of smoke, as black 
as ink, seemed to shoot up to the very zenith. 

"You'd better keep away," Captain Arms said 
warningly. "There's no good comes of fooling round 
volcanoes in a ship." 

"Oh, it's safe enough," returned Cosmo. "We can 
run right over the southeastern corner of Sicily and 
get as near as we like. There is nothing higher 
than about three thousand feet in that part of the 
island, so we'll have a. thousand feet to spare." 



"But maybe the water has lowered somewhat." 

"Not more than a foot or two," said Cosmo. "Go 
ahead." 

The captain plainly didn't fancy the adventure, 
but he obeyed orders, and the Ark's nose was turned 
northward, to the delight of many of the passengers 
who had become greatly interested when they 
learned that the tremendous smoke that they saw 
came from Mount Etna. Some of them were 
nervous. 

The more adventurous spirits heartily applauded 
Cosmo Ver sal's design to give them a closer view of 
so extraordinary a spectacle. Even from their pre- 
sent distance the sight was one that might have 
filled them all with terror if they had not already 
been through adventures which had hardened their 
nerves. The smoke was truly terrific in appearance. 

It did not spread low over the sea, but rose 
in an almost vertical column, widening out at a 
height of several miles, until it seemed to canopy 
the whole sky toward the north. 

It could be seen spinning in immense rolling 
masses, the outer part of which were turned by the 
sunshine to a dingy brown color, while the main 
stem of the column, rising directly from the great 
crater, was of pitchy blackness. 

An awful roaring was audible, sending a shiver 
through the Ark. At the bottom of the mass of 
smoke, through which gleams of fire were seen to 
Bhoot as they drew nearer, appeared the huge coni- 
cal form of the mountain, whose dark bulk still rose 
nearly seven thousand feet above the sea that cov- 
ered the great, beautiful, and historic island be- 
neath it. 

They had got within about twenty miles of the 
base of the mountain, when a shout was heard by 
those on the bridge, and Cosmo and the captain, 
looking for its source, saw the Jvles Verne, risen to 
the surface, a little to starboard, and de Beaux- 
champs excitedly signaling to them. They just 
made out the words, "Sheer off!" when the Ark, 
with a groaning sound, took ground, and they were 
almost precipitated over the rail of the bridge. 

"Aground again, by — I" exclaimed Captain Arms, 
inBtantly signaling all astern. "I told you not to go 
fooling round a volcano.' 

"This beats me!" cried Cosmo Versal. "I wonder 
if the island has begun to riBe." 

"More likely the sea has begun to fall," growled 
Captain Arms. 

"Do you know where we are?" asked Cosmo. 

"We can't be anywhere but on the top of Monte 
Lauro," replied the captain. 

"But that's only three thousand feet high." 

"It's exactly three thousand two hundred and 
thirty feet," said the captain. "I haven't navigated 
the old Mediterranean a hundred times for noth- 
ing." 

"But even then we should have near seven hun- 
dred and fifty feet to spare, allowing for the draft 
of the Ark, and a slight subsidence of the water." 

"Well, you haven't allowed enough, that's plain," 
said the captain. 

"But it's impossible that the flood can have sub- 
sided more than seven hundred feet already." 

"I don't care how impossible, it is— here we aret 



964 



AMAZING STORIES 



We're stuck on a mountain-top, and if we don't 
leave our bones on it I'm a porpoise." 

By this time the Jules Verne was alongside, and 
de Beauxchamps shouted up: 

"I was running twenty feet under water, keeping 
along with the Ark, when my light suddenly re- 
vealed the mountain ahead. I hurried up and tried 
to warn you, but it was too late." 

"Can't you go down and see where we're fast?" 
asked Cosmo. 

"Certainly; that's just what I was about to pro- 
pose," replied the Frenchman, and immediately the 
submersible disappeared. 

After a long time, during which Cosmo succeeded 
in allaying the fears of his passengers, the sub- 
mersible reappeared, and de Beauxchamps made his 
report. He said that the Ark was fast near the 
bow on a bed of shelly limestone. 

He thought that by using the utmost force of the 
Jules Verne, whose engines were very powerful, 
in pushing the Ark, combined with the backing of 
her own engines, she might be got off. 

"Hurry up, then, and get to work," cried Cap- 
tain Arms. "This flood is on the ebb, and a few 
hours more will find us stuck here like a ray with 
his saw in a whale's back." 

De Beauxchamps's plan was immediately adopted. 
The Jules Verne descended, and pushed with all her 
force, while the engines of the Ark were reversed, 
and within fifteen minutes they were once more 
afloat. 

Without waiting for a suggestion from Cosmo 
Versa], the Frenchman carefully inspected with his 
search-light the bottom of the Ark where she had 
atruck, and when he came to the surface he was 
able to report that no serious damage had resulted. 

"There's no hole," he said, "only a slight denting 
of one of the plates, which will not amount to any- 
thing." 

Cosmo, however, was not content until he had 
made a careful inspection by opening some of the 
manholes in the inner skin of the vessel. He found 
no cause for anxiety, and in an hour the Ark re- 
sumed its voyage eastward, passing over the site of 
ancient Syracuse. 

By this time a change of the wind had sent the 
smoke from Etna in their direction, and now it 
lay thick upon the water, and rendered it, for a 
while, impossible to see twenty fathoms from the 
bridge. 

"It's old Etna's dying salute," said Cosmo. "He 
won't have his head above water much longer." 

"But the flood is going down," exclaimed Captain 
Arms. 

"Yes, and that puzzles me. There must have been 
an enormous absorption of water into the interior, 
far greater than I ever imagined possible. But wait 
until the nucleus of the nebula strikes us! In the 
mean time, this lowering of the water renders it 
necessary for us to make haste, or we may not get 
over the mountains round Suez before the down- 
pour recommences." 

As soon as they escaped from the smoke of Etna 
they ran full speed ahead again, and, keeping well 
south of Crete, at length, one morning they found 



themselves in the latitude and longitude of Alex- 
andria. 

The weather wa3 still superb, and Cosmo was 
very desirous of getting a line on the present height 
of the water. He thought that he could make a 
fair estimate of this from the known height of the 
mountains about Sinai. Accordingly they steered 
in that direction, and on the way passed directly 
over the site of Cairo. 

Then the thought of the pyramids came to them 
all, and de Beauxchamps, who had come aboard the 
Ark, and who was always moved by sentimental 
considerations, proposed that they should spend a 
few hours here, while he descended to inspect the 
condition in which the flood had left those mighty 
monuments. 

Cosmo not only consented to this, but he even 
offered to be a member of the party. The French- 
man was only too glad to have his company. Cos- 
mo Versal descended into the submersible after 
instructing Captain Arms to hover in the neighbor- 
hood. 

The passengers and crew of the Ark, with ex- 
pressions of anxiety that would have pleased their 
subject if he had heard them, watched the Jules 
Verne disappear into the depths beneath. 

The submersible wa3 gone so long that the 
anxiety of those aboard the Ark deepened into 
alarm, and finally became almost panic. They had 
never before known how much they depended upon 
Cosmo Versal. 

He was their only reliance, their only hope. He 
alone had known how to keep up their spirits, and 
when he had assured them, as he so often did, that 
the flooding would surely recommence, they had 
hardly been terrified because of their unexpressed 
confidence that, let come what would, hi3 great 
brain would find a way out for them. 

Now he was gone, down into the depths of this 
awful sea, where their imaginations pictured a 
thousand unheard of perils, and perhaps they would 
never see him again! Without him they knew 
themselves to be helpless. Even Captain Arms 
almost lost his nerve. 

The strong good sense of Amos Blank alone saved 
them from the utter despair that began to seize 
them as hour after hour passed without the reap- 
pearance of the Jvles Verne. 

His experience had taught him how to keep a 
level head in an emergency, and how to control 
panics. With King Richard always at his side, he 
went about among the passengers and fairly laughed 
them out of their fears. 

Without discussing the matter at all, he convinced 
them, by simple force of his own apparent confi- 
dence, that they were worrying themselves about 
nothing. 

He was, in fact, as much alarmed as any of the 
others, but he never showed it. He started a rumor, 
after six hours had elapsed, that Cosmo himself 
had said that they would probably require 'ten or 
twelve hours for their exploration. 

Cosmo had said nothing of the kind, but Blank's 
prevarication had its Intended effect, and, for- 
tunately, before the lapse of another six hours, there 
was news from under the sea. 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



965 



And what was happening in the mysterious 
depths below the Ark? What had so long detained 
the submersible? 

The point where the descent was made had been 
so well chosen that the Jules Verne almost struck 
the apex of the Great Pyramid as it approached the 
bottom. The water was somewhat muddy from the 
sands of the desert, and the search-light streamed 
through a yellowish medium, recalling the "golden 
atmosphere" for which Egypt had been celebrated. 
But, nevertheless, the light was so powerful that 
they could see distinctly at a distance of several 
rods. 

The pyramid appeared to have been but little in- 
jured, although the tremendous tidal wave that had 
swept up the Nile during the invasion of the sea be- 
fore the downpour began had scooped out the sand 
down to the bed-rock on all sides. 

Finding nothing of particular interest in a cir- 
cuit of the pyramid, they turned in the direction 
of the Great Sphinx. 

This, too, had been excavated to its base, and it 
now stood up to its full height, and a terrible ex- 
pression seemed to have come into its enigmatic 
features. 

Cosmo wished to get a close look at it, and they 
ran the submersible into actual contact with the 
forepart of the gigantic statue, just under the 
mighty chin. ' 

While they paused there, gazing out of the front 
window of the vessel, a bursting sound was heard, 
followed by a loud crash, and the Jules Verne was 
shaken from stem to stern. Every man of them 
threw himself against the sides of the vessel, for 
the sound came from overhead, and they had an in- 
stinctive notion that the roof was being crushed 
down upon them. 

A second resounding crash was heard, shaking 
them like an earthquake, and the littie vessel rolled 
partly over upon its side. 

"We are lost!" cried de Beauxchamps. "The 
Sphinx is falling upon us! We shall be buried alive 
here !" , 

A third crash came over their heads, and the sub- 
mersible seemed to sink beneath them as if seeking 
to avoid the fearful blows that were rained upon its 
roof. 

Still, the stout curved ceiling, strongly braced 
within, did not yield, although they saw, with 
affright, that it was bulged inward, and some of the 
braces were torn from their places. But no water 
came in. 

Stunned by the suddenness of the aceident, for a 
few moments they did nothing but cling to such sup- 
ports as were within their reach, expecting that 
another blow would either force the vessel com- 
pletely over or break the roof in. 

But complete silence now reigned, and the mis- 
siles from above ceased to strike the submersible. 
The search-light continued to beam out of the fore 
end of the vessel, and following its broad ray with 
their eyes, they uttered one cry of mingled amaze- 
ment and fear, and then stared without a word at 
such a spectacle as the wildest imagination could 
not have pictured. 

The front of the Sphinx had disappeared, and the 



light, penetrating beyond the place where it had 
stood, streamed upon the face and breast of an 
enormous black figure, seated on a kind of throne, 
.and staring into their faces with flaming eyes which 
tat once fascinated and terrified them. 

To their startled imaginations the eyes seemed 
to roll in their sockets, and flashes of fire to dart 
from them. Their expression was menacing and 
terrifying beyond belief. At the same time the as- 
pect of the face wa3 so majestic that they cowered 
before it. 

The cheek bones were high and massive and 
polished until they shone in the light; the nose and 
chin were powerful in their contours; and the brow 
.wore an intimidating frown. It seemed to the awed 
onlookers as if they had sacrilegiously burst into 
the sanctuary of an offended god. 

But, after a minute or two of stupefaction, they 
thought again of the desperateness of their situa- 
tion, and turned from staring at the strange idol to 
consider what they should do. 

The fact that no water was finding its way into 
the submersible somewhat reassured them, but the 
question now arose whether it could be withdrawn 
from its position. 

They had no doubt that the front of the Sphinx, 
saturated by the water after the thousands of years 
that it had stood there, exposed to the desiccating 
influences of the sun and the desert sands, had sud- 
denly disintegrated, and fallen upon them, pinning 
their vessel fast under the fragments of its huge 
chin. 

De Beauxchaihps tried the engines and found that 
they had no effect in moving the Jules Verne. He 
tried again and again to disengage the vessel, by 
reversing but it would not stir. Then they debated 
the only other means of escape. 

"Although I have levium life-suits," said the 
■Frenchman, "and although the top can probably he 
opened, for the door seems not to have been touched, 
yet the instant it is removed the water will rush in, 
and it will be impossible to pump out the vessel." 

"Are your life-suits so arranged that they will 
permit of moving the limbs?" demanded Cosmo. 

"Certainly they are." 

"And can they be weighted 30 as to remain at the 
bottom?" 

"They are arranged for that," responded de 
Beauxchamps. 

"And can the weights be detached from within 
by the inmates without permitting the entrance of 
water ?" 

"It can be done, although a very little water 
might enter during the operation."' 

"Then," said Cosmo, "let us put on the suits, 
open the door, take out the ballast so that, if re- 
leased, the submersible will rise to the surface 
through its own buoyancy, and then see if we can- 
not loosen the vessel from outside." 

It was a suggestion whose boldness made even the 
owner and constructor of the Jules Verne stare for 
a moment, but evidently it was the only possible 
way in which the vessel might be saved; and know- 
ing that, in case of failure, they could themselves 
float to the surface after removing the weights from 
the bottom of the suits, they unanimously decided 



966 



AMAZING STORIES 



to try Cosmo Versal's plan. It -was terribly hard 
work getting the ballast out of the submersible, 
working as they had to do under water, which 
rushed in as soon as the door was opened, and in 
their awkward auits i which were provided with 
apparatus for renewing the supply of oxygen; but 
at last they succeeded. 

Then they clambered outside, and labored des- 
perately to release the vessel from the huge frag- 
ments of stone that pinned it down. Finally, ex- 
hausted by their efforts, and unable to make any 
impression, they gave up. 

De Beauxchamps approached Cosmo, and mo- 
tioned to him that it was time to ascend to the sur- 
face and leave the Jules Verne to her fate. But 
.Cosmo signaled back that he wished first to examine 
more closely the strange statue that was gazing up- 
on them in the still unextinguished beam of the 
search-light with what they might now have re- 
garded as a look of mockery. 

The others, accordingly, waited while Cosmo 
Versal, greatly impeded by his extraordinary gar- 
ment, clambered up to the front of the figure. There 
he saw something which redoubled his amazement. 

On the broad breast he saw a representation of a 
world overwhelmed with a deluge, and encircling it 
was what he instantly concluded to be the picture of 
a nebula. Underneath, in ancient Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics, with which Cosmo was familiar, was an 
inscription in letters of gold, which could only be 
translated thus : 

I Come Again — 

At the End of Time. 

"Great Heavens!" he said to himself. "It is a 
prophecy of the Second Deluge!" 

He continued to gaze, amazed, at the figure and 
the inscription, until de Beauxchamps clambered to 
his side and indicated to him that it was necessary 
that they should ascend without further delay, 
showing him by signs that the air-renewing ap- 
paratus would give out. 

With a last lingering look at the figure, Cosmo 
imitated the others by detaching the weights from 
below his feet, and a minute later they were all 
shooting rapidly toward the surface of the sea, de 
Beauxchamps, as he afterward declared, uttering a 
prayer for the repose of the Jules Verne. 

The imaginary time which Amos Blank had fixed 
as the limit set by Cosmo for the return from the 
depths was nearly gono, and he was beginning to 
cast about for some other invention to quiet the 
rising fears of the passengers, when it came in a 
visible form, which made the eyea of Captain Arms, 
the first to catch sight of it, start from their 
sockets. He rubbed them, and looked again — but 
there it was ! 

A huge head, human in outline, with bulging, 
glassy eyes, popped suddenly out of the depths, fol- 
lowed by the upper part of a gigantic form which 
was no less suggestive of a monstrous man, and 
which immediately began to wave its arms! 

Before the captain could collect his Senses an- 
other shot to the surface, and then another and an- 
other, until there were seven of them floating and 
awkwardly gesticulating within a radius of a hun- 
dred fathoms on the starboard side of the vessel. 



The whole series of apparitions did not occupy 
more than a quarter of a minute in making their 
appearance. 

By the time the last had sprung into sight Cap- 
tain Arms had recovered his wits, and he shouted 
an order to lower a boat, at the same time running 
down from the bridge to superintend the operation. 
Many of the crew and passengers had in the mean 
time seen the strange objects, and they were 
thrown into a state of uncontrollable excitement. 

"It's them!" shouted the captain over his 
shoulder, in response to a hundred inquiries all put 
at once, and forgetting his grammar in the excite- 
ment. "They've come up in diving-suits." 

Amos Blank comprehended the situation at once; 
and while the captain was attending to getting out 
the boat, he explained matters to the crowd. 

"The submersible must be lost," he said quietly, 
"but the men have escaped, so there is no great 
harm done. It does great credit to that Frenchman 
that he should have been prepared for such an 
emergency. Those are levium suits, and I've no 
doubt that he has got hydrogen somewhere inside 
to increase their buoyancy." 

Within a quarter of an hour all the seven had 
been picked up by the boat, and returned to the 
Ark. The strange forms were lifted aboard with 
tackle to save time; and as the first one reached 
the deck, it staggered about on its big limbs for 
a moment. 

Then the metallic head opened, and the features 
of de Beauxchamps were revealed Within. 

Before anybody could assist him he had freed him- 
self from the suit, and immediately began to aid the 
others, In ten minutes they all stood safe and sound 
before the astonished eyes of the spectators. Cosmo 
had suffered the most from the confinement, and he 
sank upon a seat, but de Beauxchamps seemed to 
be the most affected. With downcast look he said, 
sadly shaking his head: 

"The poor Jules Vernel I shall never see her 
again." 

"What has happened?" demanded Captain Arms. 

"It was the Father of Horror," muttered Cosmo 
Versal. 

"The Father of Horror— what's that?" 

"Why, the Great Sphinx," returned Cosmo, grad- 
ually recovering his breath. "Didn't you know that 
that was what the Arabs always called the Sphinx? 

"It was that which fell upon the submersible — 
split right open and dropped its great chin upon 
us as we were sailing round it, and pinned us fast. 
But the sight that we saw when the Sphinx fell 
apart! Tell them de Beauxchamps." 

The Frenchman took up the narrative, while, with 
breathless attention, passengers and crew crowded 
about to listen to his tale. 

"When we^got to the bottom," he said "we first 
inspected the Great Pyramid, going all round it 
with our search-light. It was in good condition, al- 
though the tide that had come up the Nile with 
the invasion of the sea had washed away the sands 
to a great depth all about. When we had completed 
the circuit of the pyramid, we saw the Sphinx, 
which had been excavated by the water so that it 
stood up to its full height. 



THE SECOND DELUGE 



967 



"We ran close around it, and when we were un- 
der the chin the whole thing, saturated by the water, 
which no doubt caused an expansion within — you 
know how many thousand years the gigantic idol 
had been desiccated by the sun and the desert winds 
— dropped apart. 

"The submersible was caught by the falling mass, 
and partly crushed. We labored for hours and 
hours to release the vessel, but there was little that 
we could do. It almost broke my heart to think of 
leaving the Jules Verne there, but it had to be done. 

"At last we put on the levium floating-suits, 
opened the cover at the top, and came to the surface. 
The last thing I saw was the search-light, still burn- 
ing, and illuminating the most marvelous spectacle 
that human eyes ever gazed upon." 

"Oh, what was it? What was it?" demanded a 
score of voices in chorus. 

"It is impossible to describe it. It was the secret 
of old Egypt revealed at last — at the end of the 
world!" 

"But what was it like?" 

"Like a glimpse into the remotest corridors of 
time," interposed Cosmo Versa], with a curious look 
in his eyes. 

"Some of you may have heard that long ago holes 
were driven through the Sphinx in the hope of dis- 
covering something hidden inside, but they missed 
the seeret. The old god kept it well until his form 
fell apart. We were pinned so close to it that we 
could not help seeing it, even in the excitement of 
our situation. 

"It had always been supposed that the Sphinx 



was the symbol of something — it was, and more 
than a symbol! The explorers away back in the 
nineteenth century who thought that they had found 
something mysterious in the Great Pyramid went 
wide of the mark when they neglected the Sphinx." 

"But what did you see?" 

"We saw the prophecy of the Second Deluge," 
said Cosmo, rising to his feet, his piercing eyes 
aflame. "In the heart of the huge mass, approach- 
able, no doubt, by some concealed passage in the 
rock beneath, known only to the priests, stood a 
gigantic idol, carved out of black marble. 

"It had enormous eyes of some gem that blazed 
in the electric beam from the search-light, with 
huge golden ears and beard, and on its breast was 
a representation of a drowning world, with a great 
nebula sweeping over it." 

"It might have been a history instead of a pro- 
phecy," suggested one of the listening savants. 
"Perhaps it only told what had once happened." 

"No," replied Cosmo, shaking his big head. "It 
was a prophecy. Under it, in ancient Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, which I recognized, was an inscrip- 
tion which could only be translated by the words, 
'I come again — at the end of time !' " 

There was a quality in Cosmo Versal's voice 
which made the hearers shudder with horror. 

"Yes," he added. "It comes again ! The prophecy 
was hidden, but science had its means of revelation, 
too, if the world would but have listened to it3 
voice. Even without the prophecy I have saved the 
flower of mankind." 

(To be concluded next month) 



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The Red Dust 

By MURRAY LEINSTER 
(Concluded) 



that what Burl said was true, as they had already 
known. 

Then, while the pink-skinned men feasted on the 
meat Burl had provided for them, he and Saya went 
toward' the burrow he had made ready. It 



seemed cast from bronze, and he was a proud figure 
as he led Saya past the black pool and to the door- 
way of their home. 

They sat there, watching, while the darkness 
came on and the moths and fireflies emerged to 



not like the other burrows, being set apart from dance in the night, and listened when the rain be- 

them, and its entrance was bordered on either side 

by mushrooms as black as night. All about the 

entrance the black mushrooms clustered, a strange 

species that grew large and scattered its spores 

abroad and then of its own accord melted into an 

inky liquid that flowed away, sinking slowly into 

the ground. 

In a little hollow below the opening of the burrow %£ £jj££ ^he fireflieT dwu^lKJS^S 
an inky pool had gathered, which reflected the gray - ' 

clouds above and the shapes of the mushrooms that 
overhung its edges. 

Burl and Saya made their way toward the burrow 
in silence, a picturesque couple against the black 
background of the sable mushrooms and the earth 
made dark by the inky liquid. Both of their figures 
were swathed in cloaks of unsmirched whiteness and 
wondrous softness, and bound to Burl's forehead 
were the feathery, lacelike antenna; of a great moth, 
making flowing plumes of purest gold. His spear 



gan its slow, deliberate dripping from the 1 
clouds above. Presently a gentle rumbling began — 
the accumulation of the rain from all the mountain- 
side forming a torrent that would pour in a six- 
hundred-foot drop to the river far below. 

The sound of the rushing water grew louder, and 
was echoed back from the cliffs on the other side of 



the chasm, and all the creatures of the night winged 
their way aloft to join in the ecstasy of life and 
love. 

And then, when darkness was complete, and only 
the fitful gleams of the huge fireflies were reflected 
from the still surface of the black pool beneath their 
feet, Burl reached out hia hand to Saya, sitting be- 
side him in the darkness. She yielded shyly, and 
her soft, warm hand found his in the obscurity. 
And Burl bent over and kissed her on the lip3. 



The End 



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CONTENTS OF THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE: 

"In the; Abyss," by II. G. Wells. 

"A ('„]nml,u.H ,j[ S;.acc." (A serial in 3 ports) 

Garrett !'. Srrvins. 
"Tiie ! 'u ;,-;,;;.,.• ,., the North Pole," (A serial in ; 

I), by Jules Ver 
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"The n Moon Hoax," by Richard Adams Locke. 

CONTENTS OF THE OCTOBER ISSUE: 

"Beyond the Pole," by A. Hyatt Vcrrill. 

"A CoLiimt.ii!> of Spucc," (Conclusion), by Garrett P. Semsa. 

"The Purchase of the North Pole," (Conclusion), by Jules 

Verne. 
"The blind of Dr. Moreau," (Part I), by H. G. Well*. 
"Blasphemers' Plateau," by Alexander Snyder. 



CONTENTS OF THE DECEMBER ISSUE: 

rt Men in the Moon," (Part I), by H. G. Wells. 
n Higher Up," by Edwin Balmcr and William : 



_ nator," by Kaw. 

'Through the Crater's Rim," by A. Hyatt Verrill. 
"The Lord of the WTndi," to Agusto Hi-,; 
■;';,- I .•;,;,■ ;-. I r-:;:^] M. Sargent, Jr 

'The Educated Harponn," by Charles S. Wi.lie. 

■ . , ■ ■ : . ■ .,.■■: ., 

'The Second Delu H e." (Part III), by Garrett P. St 

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THE MAN WHO COULD VANISH 



By A. HYATT VERRILL 
{Concluded) 



him a ten dollar bill, he grinned knowingly, threw 
in the gears and with loudly honking horn headed 
uptown as I had directed. 

Hastily bandaging Lemuel's face with my hand- 
kerchief to prevent any further complications aris- 
ing over blood dripping on the taxi seat or floor, 
and half -supporting him, for he was still dazed 
and groggy and without his glasses was almost as 
blind as a bat, I fanned him with my hat. 

Presently he showed signs of recovering, took 
several deep breaths of relief and ruefully felt of 
his various bumps, contusions and bruises. Then, 
with a groan, he remarked: "Whew, that fellow 
packed an awful punch!" 

"Yes" I agreed, "and obviously the fact that you 
are invisible does not prevent you from getting 
hurt." 

"Nor from suffering," mumbled my companion, 
"I'm positive my jaw is fractured." 

"Don't try to talk," I said. "I'd take you to a 
hospital or a doctor's office, but you'd have to be 
visible and you're in no fit shape to materialize in 
public. You look like a butchery." 

By the time we reached my apartments Lemuel 
was near a collapse and was, I knew, suffering in- 
tensely. But he was atill game, and with but 
little assistance walked up the steps and into my 
rooms where he instantly dropped upon a conch. 

"Now, if you're able to, and the confounded thing 
isn't out of order, get back to your normal state," 
I commanded him. "I'll have my doctor here in a 
moment, but you've got to be visible first." 

I was greatly worried for fear that Lemuel 
might faint or lose consciousness before he could 
restore himself to visibility, and I was so perturbed 
and excited that it never occurred to me that, even 
if he remained invisible, I could give the glasses to 
the physician and thu3 enable him to attend to 
my friend's injuries. However, to my relief, Lemuel 
fumbled with his mechanism, and presently was 
once more visible to unaided human eyes. And not 
an instant too soon. He had exhausted his last 
strength in operating the device which dropped to 
the floor as consciousness left him. 

Fortunately, my doctor lived less than a block 
distant, and, still more fortunately, he was in his 
offiee. Within five minutes he was bending over Dr. 
TJnsinn, and, being as all doctors should be, a most 
discreet man, he forbore to make embarrassing in- 
quiries as to the manner in which Lemuel had re- 
ceived the wounds. 

To my intense relief he assured me that there was 
no fracture and no injuries more serious than the 
one deep gash and severe contusions. 

Lemuel regained consciousness as the doctor was 



bandaging the wound, but he made no attempt to 
speak, and, for that matter, his face was too swollen 
and painful to permit him to utter an intelligible 
word for the next twenty-four hours. 

In the meantime we eagerly bought and read the 
papers which were filled with accounts of the Hart- 
well Building mystery, and I could see by Lemuel's 
expression, even through his bandages, that he was 
immensely pleased at the attention his feat had 
attracted. There were also items regarding our, 
or rather Lemuel's, other exploits. A score of per- 
sons had reported the incident of the fainting wo- 
man; the man in the subway station had related 
his experience, but not a word appeared in print 
regarding the sudden vanishing of the car. No 
doubt the guard hesitated to mention or report the 
matter fearing that his superiors might, quite rea- 
sonably, feel that a guard subject to such hallucina- 
tions was unfit for his position. And, in all prob- 
ability, the passengers who had been present and 
who, the chances were, had spoken to the guard 
after our departure, were convinced that they had 
been subjected to some optical illusion. 

And of course there was no reference to the thief- 
chase or Lemuel's injuries, for the thief alone had 
seen anything out of the ordinary. 

And of course no one had suspected our connec- 
tion with all the phenomena, for which I was ex- 
tremely thankful, although it did not please Lemuel, 
who declared, somewhat peevishly that he had re- 
ceived no credit for his astounding discovery. 

"Credit!" I exclaimed, "If the police knew you 
were at the bottom of these things you'd very prob- 
ably be in jail by now." 

"And," I continued, "I hope this last., experience 
of yours has convinced you that I was right and 
that your discovery is a menace. If you take my 
advice you'll destroy every one of your formulae 
and every confounded contraption that has to do 
with the invention." 

A wry grin twisted Dr. Unsinn's plastered and 
bandaged face. "No," he declared, "I shall destroy 
nothing. But I must admit that I have found my 
'discovery is not so beneficial to the individual or the 
public at large as I had hoped. It is, I fear, too 
vast in its possibilities to be given to the world as 
I had planned. But I still am positive that it Is a 
most important discovery and, if properly employed, 
will be of incalculable benefit to the world. No, in- 
stead of destroying it as you suggest, I shall 
present it to our government on the understanding 
that it shall remain a secret until needed to avert 
some national calamity." 

I breathed a sigh of deep relief. "In that case," 
I replied, "your invention is as good as destroyed." 



969 



The Man With the Strange Head 



been in prison for two years; just last week he was 
released " 

Chief Peter John Smith interrupted. 

"I've been putting two and two together, and I 
can shed a little light on this problem. Three days 
ago. the day before I was called to watch Anstruther 
pacing his room, we picked up this man Poulos in 
the alleyway between Rudge & Guenzel's and Miller 
& Paine's. He was unconscious, and must have re- 
ceived a terrible licking at somebody's hands; his 
face was almost unrecognizable; several ribs and 
several fingers on his right hand were broken. He 
clutched a pistol fitted with a silencer, and we found 
that two shots had been fired from it. Here he 
is " 

A limp, bandaged, plastered man was pushed in 
between two policemen. He was sullen and apathe- 
tic, until he caught sight of Anstruther's face from 
which the chief had drawn a corner of the sheet. 
Terror and joy seemed to mingle in his face and in 
his voice. He raised his bandaged hand with an 
ineffectual gesture, and started off on some Greek 
religious expression, and then turned dazedly to us, 
speaking painfully through his swollen face. 

"Glad he dead. I try to kill him. Shoot him two 
time. No kill. So close " indicating the dis- 
tance of a foot from his chest; "then he lick me. 
He is not man. He is devil. I not kill him, but I 
glad he dead!" 

The Chief hurried him out, and came in with a 
small, dapper man with a black chin whisker. He 
apologized to the coroner. 

"This is not a frame-up. I am just following 
out a hunch that I got a few minutes ago while 
Stoner was talking. This is Mr. Fournier. I found 
his address in Anstruther's room, and dug him up. 
I think he will be more important to you doctors 
than he will in a court. Tell 'em what you told 
me I" 



By Dr. MILES J. BREUER 
(Concluded) 



While the little Frenchman talked, the under- 
taker's assistant jerked off the sheet. The under- 
taker's work had had its effect in getting rid of the 
frightful odor, and in making Anstruther's face 
presentable. The body, however, looked for all 
the world as though it were alive, plump, powerful, 
pink. In the chest, over the heart, were two bullet 
holes, not bloody, but clean-cut and black. The 
Frenchman turned to the body and worked on it 
with a littie screw-driver as he talked. 

"Mr. Anstruther came to me ten years ago, when 
I was a poor mechanic. He had heard of my auto- 
matic chess-player, and my famous animated show- 
window models ; and he offered me time and money 
to find him a mechanical relief for his infirmity. I 
was an assistant at a Paris laboratory, where they 
iad just learned to split radium and get a hundred 
horse-power from a pinch of powder. Anstruther 
was weak and thin, but ambitious." 

The Frenchman lifted off two plates from the 
chest and abdomen of the body, and the flanks 
swung outward as though on hinges. He removed 
a number of packages that seemed to fit carefully 
within, and which were on the ends of cables and 
chains. 

"Now — " he said to the assistants, who held the 
feet. He put his hands into the chest cavity, and 
as the assistants pulled the feet away, he lifted 
out of the shell a small, wrinkled, emaciated body ; 
the body of an old man, which now looked quite in 
keeping with the well-known Anstruther head. 
Its chest was covered with dried blood, and there 
were two bullet holes over the heart. The under- 
taker's assistants carried it away while we crowded 
around to inspect the mechanism within the arms 
and legs of the pink and live-looking shell, headless, 
gaping at the chest and abdomen, but uncannily like 
a healthy, powerful man. 



w:i 




Discussions 








In 


this department wo shall discus 


s, every month, topics of in- Hshed, i 


ind discussed by the editors. 


Due to tl 


ie great i 


nflux of mail it 




all of our roador:!. The oditori 




:;siiiU: !■:> asssivcr Jill !r,lti.; pc 


rsonnlly, ai 






..::»,■.■ 1: 


i directly or indirectly reined to 
.e. Only letters of interest to a 




isv-er is required, a nominal 


foe of 25c 






mar-act 


1 of 'our readers will be pub- ago is i 


eqnirod. 










Dr. 


Moreau and the 


"Wolf. Girls' 








An ir: 


te correspondent recently wrot 
his t-.-.-.e: disapproval of "The : 


c in, Palrcnham Walsh of Bishops 


College, Cat- her _ savage 


tUOJW, bi, 


■t she I 


aught fiercely 


oi'Di'!' 


Moreau." He said sn much th; 


it ive Bishop Walsh relates that olio 


Kl the end of t"ey!%irr'° 
. Jal Sir.gh's time she re, 










. reproduce trie letter in full, b< 
1 take up loo much space, but h< 


icause August, while visi<iu,j the Hcv 


'used to be washed 


arid 'ate with 




■ took orphanage at Midncfar, Mr. Si. 


;■;,'. ieeai:e,ted her month. 


in a dish. 


. livent 






jsk. slatiiiB thnt the story was v 


.ttcrly Iww he discovered the "-.cell .ii, 


Is." taught la us 




■.' end sa 




Impossible, that animals could never 


turn In a distant part af hi: disi 


riet not long She still i 




e!a:!v a;: 








never before the villagers pointed out 


to Mm a path nor laughs. 


but is ge 


::,'.■ «■;:/: 


a::imc!s, pre- 




jinals, He said many other u 




•■unfed by lie- term:./ Ihv , 


em/any ,i, 




children. 




jry lliiufs about the siory in ge 


neral. , fflOlri. Instigation revealed a 


well den in The above 


«<>i-y ^e. 




a cicited some 


In a: 

pv:..-.:.l 


,B Wer ,ve print a dipping which ap. "'."; c " t«" W» T^,™""' "J? ""* w? aiseu "i° n " 

in flu- Vr-v i'ltrl- T : ire: frnm til -\s- ■'"'-'■ cf ""' 1 " : ''° "'" ! ''-'"" ycars "? "»*' hoih respondents 


i L.ii.lf,;. : 
ii'Wn- 'i'se: 




■ai named cor- 

,: Westminster 


6!ra"iBCr Than" fiction:" 


The supposition was that the 


c,-. 


"sVriJar! 


a, and it 
■ l-ld of 


small children 


Two 


Utile "wolf girls" were found re 


:cntly doned as babies by their motht 


r or mothers hein R reared 






ies of monkey. 


liiiiui : 


n a wolfs den near an isolated i 


-Wage and were found and adapted DV 


the she wolf. In the fun 




1 Kipling en- 


in. /"■;.■ 


,ial. lirkish India. The story i, 


■■ :-:..! With much d-ipenlty, the ~c 


hildrcn were larges on the 






Id with a band 


;.-,■ The 


' Wee.unier.ler Gnacltc, which' re, 


rived rescued, hut the younger died sc 


■an. afterward. of wolves ai 


: h 






:■ /,.,,, 


India, -inched for by the Rr 
of Midnapur, Bengal ™>d £ 


1. Jal The elder child survived and 






this wo 


-L—EDITOK. 


Singh 


ishap orphanage. She was gradually 


weaned from (Continued 




171) 



AMAZING STORIES 



971 



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A LETTER TO COSMO VERSAL 
[We print below a letter which we have re- 
ceived. The mi'tv evident] v !:i«'j E ht that Cosmo 
Versa], the fictitious hero of the fictiiiou:. -,mv, 
■"nit Second [)..'!iii;c" was .1 real person and 
ImiU his Ark .-,:, ut.crih.:,! i:. til,: Mory. L'llllily .is 
this is, it certainly iostifi,-! u, the skill of the 



I interested in y D ur Ark and wish y 



J. W. F., Newport 



would 



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We print below the first lines of a critical letter 
vc received from one of our esteemed readers. It 

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CRITICISM OF THE NAVAL BATTLE IN 
"STATION X" 
Editor, Ahaiiho Stories; 



ilightly antique and r 



f riiv crilici-rn .-ctaaE har:il, forcive it on the 
.inds ihsl 1 am ir-.ier^tcJ in ill,- K^fare i.f 
: them truly 

San'Fra"ndsc"n" Calii! 
[If you will read attentively Hir de-crivlir.n of 
■.lie sea-deh: in it:.: la,t lines ot "Station X." von 
will see that much more was involved than the 
simple battle between the cruiser and the battle- 
ship and the Main. ms' strand: weapons gave an 
aspect to the tvitil.- which rtni-.v,-, -i from criticium. 

ft ( -::i:|._'K this we lia.e received numbers of Very 
strong commend:.:;. -a-, of ''St.v.i.-ii X," which has 

—EDITOR.] 2 V,:ry aCCeP C 3 "" ° ° Ur rM ""' 



AN INTERESTING SUGGESTION 

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earthly at 25c per copy. 



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EDITOR.] 



GEEMS AND THEIR POSSIBILITIES 
Mftor, Austin Stories: 

Shtutlv jA:-.- rtediiiL' the OcM'.or imic of vour 
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Wouldn't 
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Tires of Small Salary 








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Wc 



n of A 






itinj! uf llic natural wilder- 
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hoy to read it.— EDITOR] 



.due liiehlv. .our sue-no lions. If t!ie ,i,;,L>:i-iu.- 
.■allv uruws heller and better, we feel that i; is 
.recly due I I ::[:[. s-cefsu-u e^.rcsseil and fell 

ie a bi-montliiy! 



1,™ ,,,1,11.1,1 




:ditoi; ] 


OPPORTUNITY AD-LETS 


MISCELLANEOUS 


I'OkMS I.'..:'-' l-'-.'i ;v : - : '"■:. -udian 
l-'.'v.l (''alai-.k'ni-!" 11. C. Sdio/cci:",' ." li.i,!.| 
Brooklyn. N. V. 


M:,riu,-^, 
for illu- 
-72nd St., 


John 3. Yo 

.= 'n(i St.. Ncv, 


:n. U-. ■■-;•■ su:. ■:;,■■. I'iis 

York City. 


s, 507 W. 


DON'T I'v 


,;u-, t„i ;„,.. Ceil *,,!■;.■. 


i-s..:n:!„i 
. Coluiu- 

0. c. 


PATENT ATTORNEYS 


U. S. and 

/•J r'n^n's.n 


..■'.' experience:' George ( 
ire. New York: re E i-lerci 


in''u.'' R, 


PERSONAL 


TOBACCO 
if cured. R 

•■'i_\ !)-d:i!,i:>1 


u- Snuff Habit Cured or n 
nerlv -.-lit r>n trial. Su 

. M.l. 


:s,"d". 




EtIBEEH STAMPS 




Boston. Mass. 


-Isiiu. .;|.iii; I'hiV inL '; 


ViuVh 1 '^.'. 


SONG POEMS 


So n E Pocu. 
2101 N, Kevs 


Wriws -wit,- R ; „. riihh 
:■!"■ A-,,-.. Cider.,,,. 


er. D16S, 




ii, N-3S« 



Does $5,200 a Ye; 

Look Like a Mountaii 

Here's a peculiar thing about salaries 



But he rt-achoa it, let us Bay. 

'I I.-.-il ":>-:in\V,:.-l;" b„,- u „,cs: il„: h.^ht he 
•-.-iiK i. Ins i.r.:,::v d.::-:: ::■. :■!:-. !1;h. lil t!, : old '> 
Week" lunk.-i small i.idc.-dl 
. li^iiri.,-.!!:.-— tlLl-.i In^.-.tuu-. Mr^in,, [! ; 



Start Now— by Doubling Your Sa 

■Novor mind what vou're niakitiB now. i 
would you LUCE to make? 



The idea 
tibject nf 


are fico. mi ■];:)■.■ ;:.:■ :^k.-r; [jr tsnunsailis. 
" Then rend t!.,- fnlnvim: -nni.-m.-iii:, hom 1. 

ir.,iil.-d [i.,-:i,r,r,,: ■,.-■: ■,. ml- i.u:.! -.-.I.-.- V( i' ' 

CAN QUICI-I.Y l.\CKi:A:-I_ VOUH EAK\ 


y one of 


J3ffSttPfftiSi£SR JS^S St i 



We do not momisu anyone an im media 

from ?:o.a-wer.k~or S-IO-a-we-lt- to S1O.O0II 

Adv:i[>c,-m.-in is iiurly won that way. ■' 

But we DO call attention to (he (acl I ha 

six nioi.lhs'ihne ii= iv as: l_ l:U..:i-,iili ; t 

reported definite |itoiun t ion_ totalliius ii .-'/.', 
avcf.'Lsn: [:n-rc:is!c ncr nu.n ivas S9 ner cent. 

Find Yo»r.e(/ Thru LoSnllc.'— 

LASALLE EXTENSION UNIVE] 

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University of Applied Science 

1920 Sunnyside Ave, Dept. 11-33, Chicago, Illinois 

v~onil.-ul.Mi; ■(Viiiiculr.mv fHdijrsiifm wlmtiivn . Mind me (he 
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Print Book and Special Offer now open.: ' 



i the bona fide re m:id:i l.w Sn,:ii ; ;-ei i 

;u>liisti;iiHi'. Itetr.cr l.hiia fiction! Leach; ; 



University of Applied Science 

1920 Sunnyside Av., Dcpt. 11-81 Chicago, 111.